Duty of the heart
by chloemcg
Summary: Milla gives birth to Jude's daughter, named Ami, and allows Jude to raise the small child alone in the mortal realm but what happens if the Spyrite researcher bites off more than he could chew when he discovers that there is more to the situation than meets the eye?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

Milla panted, sighing with relief that the long and odorous process was finally over.

Her blonde long flowing hair with tints of teal and yellow was spread all over the pillows of the cot she laid on top on and she continued to cling on to the sheets, her sweaty palms dampening them in the process. Her unique yet mesmerising Rose-coloured rims were just filled with overflowing exhaustion and she tried to sit up but only for a major headache to take over so she could fall back down on the bed.

She felt sapped of her spiritual energies from the exhausting process and she could hardly believe what she had just accomplished: She, the great Milla Maxwell, lord of the spirits and four elements, had just given birth to a brand new life.

Since she was a mere spirit in a human body catalyst, nobody even dared to dream that she would be able to conceive much like regular humans can. Not even she thought it possible! Yet she was proven wrong when she bear a child with Jude Mathias -he was a doctor and protector of both spirits and humankind alike, and her partner.

By Milla's side was her older sister, Muzét, another spirit. She long pixie/butterfly-esque wings that were long enough to touch the floors, she had long periwinkle-greenish hair that reached down and pointy elf ears.

The spirit smiled warmly as she looked down at the infant whom had just been born and proceeded to wrap her up in a small light blanket and then she deftly lowered it into Milla's awaiting arms which were shaking with anticipation and anxiety.

Milla calmed down, her breathing regulating, and sighed with exhaustion as she looked over at the tiny baby being held in her arms, HER tiny baby; it was a life the both she and Jude had created and she couldn't deny it, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes upon and considering that she was a spirit in control of the elements, that was saying a _lot_.

"M-Milla..." Muzét whispered whilst she looked over the newly born child "It is a female, isn't she just endearing?"

Milla couldn't help but feel something bubble up inside of her. It was a strange yet amazing feeling that she couldn't describe; it was as if her heart had grown ten sizes bigger and then the adoration of seeing this squirming and crying bundle seeping into the newfound space in her heart. Her stomach clenched and her heart fluttered in her chest as tears of emotion started to swell up in her rich fuchsia eyes.

Milla had barely expressed much emotion as she was still learning and adjusting in her human body but she had every right to do so on this momentous occasion. Actually it was even bigger considering that this was the very first child to be born from a spirit and a regular human.

Upon adjusting her daughter in her arms, the Lord of spirits had a better look at the child.

The baby had very pale skin that was almost as pink as a pink sakura petal. She had very small tufts of hair on her head and the colouring was almost exactly the same as her father's hair. But there were some little hints of blonde that coloured the tips and even a small portion of her hair in total. Upon seeing the girl blink her tiny eyes open on occasion as she snuffled, Milla managed to see that she even had Jude's soft amber eyes.

Those eyes which looked mesmerisingly enchanting on the new life that breathed softly as her chest rose and fell just under the blankets she had been wrapped up in.

But Milla was worried.

She knew that humans were naturally very fragile compared to her but this tiny infant looked far more fragile, like just moving a fraction could deal some fatal damage. She didn't wish to inadvertently harm her child so she didn't move at all yet her eyes were glued unto the newborn whilst she looked at the little girl with sheer awe.

All was silent until Muzét spoke up again, "What shall we do with this child, sister?"

Milla blinked with confusion as she tried to register what was just asked of her while she finally tore her gaze away from the sleeping bundle in her arms. That was a good question, what should she do now? This baby wouldn't have much of a childhood up here in the spiritual realm and she would be awfully lonesome when she gets older. Plus, the Lord of spirits felt that she had no right to keeping an innocent child prisoner when she would more than likely want to see the world outside of this temporal plain.

Her confusion made way for an attempt at indifference as she held her baby girl just a bit tighter. She paused for a moment and then answered Muzét.

"...Perhaps we should send her to Jude?"

Muzét seemed surprised by the answer and the nonchalant tone Milla used with it yet she was understanding at the same time as she simply stayed silent to allow her little sister to explain her reasoning.

Milla did just that.

"I have read many books about humans and know very well that children need freedom and socialisation..." The great spirit Maxwell closed her eyes and carried on speaking in a matter-of-factly tone "...that and I do not think I can provide her a proper life, she can have that with Jude..." she opened her eyes and turned her head away, "I want what is best for her..."

Milla looked down, as if ashamed, and barely noticed Muzét whom was actually starting to get down on her knees despite floating as she gently slid her finger beneath the Lord of spirit's chin and lifted her face up so their eyes could meet. Their eyes never once faltered or tried to avoid one another although some would probably consider it a little bit awkward.

Muzét spoke sincerely as a heartfelt grin graced her lips and her eyes became smiley. "Milla, you are behaving more and more like a human; while I am unsure about them they seemed to have impacted on you in a positive way and somehow this fact overjoys me..."

Milla smiled genuinely yet weakly at Muzét, for the first time she actually felt appreciative of the goddess being by her side. Now she was happy to call Muzét her sister and even though she would probably deny it should anyone ask, she was happy to have her alongside her as well as her advice and understanding at times like this..even if Muzét could be a bit of hard work sometimes.

Milla chuckled softly as she felt a sudden heat burn at her cheeks, then she shook her head gently to subconsciously express the fact that she was embarrassed that she had been caught blushing and the embarrassment only increased when her own child started to cry in a needy manner as she reached her pudgy tiny arms up to touch her mother's face, her tiny mouth stretched open as she wailed at a feeble volume.

Milla started to tear up yet again as he smiled warmly down at the snug little bundle of joy that she had been cradling in her arms. She couldn't help but let the tears flow down his face whence he felt how warm the squirming little form was against the palm of his hand. The tiny hint of fuzz on the infant's head tickled the lord of spirit's hand as she gingerly rubbed the infant through the flannel cloth she had been wrapped up in; she exhaled tiredly and looked back down at the newborn whom only whimpered softly and squirmed in her arms. The poor little child seemed restless and even started to grow even more so but only to be shushed as Milla cuddled the tiny infant.

"Shhh, it is alright my little one~" She crooned softly.

Muzét started straightening her floating posture out as she held her arms out to take her niece into her own possession.

Milla was reluctant but she knew that it was best; yet there was one more fear that overcame her senses and that was because that she feared for others making fun of her because she was half spirit/half human. This was a first as a human had never mated with a spirit before, it was simply unheard of until now so she expected some hardships for her daughter but, if she was anything like her and Jude, then she had no doubt that she would be strong enough to face them.

Milla kissed her daughter's forehead before handing the infant to Muzét who and looked down at her weakened sister with a frown of concern. "Milla. You are aware that when I use the dimensional rift to send this child where she needs to go, that you won't be able to go to the other realm for quite some time?"

Milla nodded with confidence flashing in her eyes.

Then Muzét asked her final question, "And what of a name? Surely she must have one?"

That was the moment when the mighty Maxwell, Lord of spirits, felt her train of thought crash. A name? She hadn't even thought of that! She was just so busy thinking up everything else that the thought of a name had completely slipped her mind. Milla slowly readjusted her position in the bed and reached over to stroke her daughter's head once more whilst she pondered deeply on the idea of a name.

This child needed a name to prove that she was unique yet it also needed to somehow represent both of her parents...but it also needed to represent her. The great spirit lord thought long and hard about it and eventually a name had finally popped into her head, and it was a nice name that she found herself fond of.

"Ami, Ami Mathis..."

Muzét looked down at her small infant niece and thought over the name. Ami was a name with Japanese origins which translated to truth and beauty and they decided to go with this name because it was kind of a representation for the Hymn of proof, a song which had been carried through the raging rapids of time.

Quite a pretty name, indeed.

She proceeded to look down deeply into her sister's eyes, she had to double check with her about this decision:

"Are you certain about this?"

Milla nodded firmly, all traces of hesitation gone. "I want what is best for her, and she cannot have the best with me."

"I do advise we keep an eye at her, though, as she IS part spirit and part human..." Muzét advised.

Another stern nod from Milla made Muzét certain that her sister wasn't going to change her mind about this and gave a curt nod of her head as she promptly floated away into the distance but not before freezing dead in her tracks. She floated idly for several moments before she shuffled little Ami into one arm and proceeded to extend her free arm and move it in a flurry of gestures which quickened when a blue light symbol revealed itself and the older powerful spirit started to manipulate the blue lights.

Within seconds of doing this, a portal tore open through space and she wasted no time in leaping into it.

She disappeared with the baby in a matter of seconds.

Milla never believed in the term "broken-hearted". She didn't know how it was possible for a human organ to break or shatter like porcelain or even glass, but she knew that this was what her heart was doing right at this very moment.

Her heart had broken.

Her heart had been smashed into pieces when she saw her baby go and she could swear that she broke down crying again as she let the tears flow down her cheeks and she let out choppy and gasping breaths that could pass off as sobs. Her lungs burned for oxygen and felt like they could burst from how much she was crying.

She let her emotions start squeezing like a sponge.

Milla wasn't sure if she was just letting her rampant mood swings get the better of her or not but she didn't care; she didn't even want to think about it. The moisture that had gathered inside her eyes had trailed down her face almost nonstop as she proceeded to lift a hand and use the back of it to wipe away her tears, she chewed her lower lip. Her heart ached and her instincts cried out to hold her baby girl again.

"I..I knew I made the right decision...but why does it hurt so much?"

* * *

 **A/N: Hi, guys. I decided to change the original plot of the story to this because I had been slightly stuck on where to take this. But I'm hoping you all enjoy this!**

 **This is supposed to take place after TOX 2 and I have very nearly finished it. I hope you guys like this so far and I'll try and update ASAP. I'm also sorry if the characters like Milla and Muzét are OOC, I'm trying my best.**

 **Please review.**

 **-Chloemcg**


	2. Discovery

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

The conjoint unified countries of Reize Maxia and Elympious had never been more peaceful as they did at this moment in time.

It had only been about a year since the great Origin's trial had finally been completed and all had gone back to a relatively peaceful state. Well, Exodus was still proving to be a handful and they were causing mayhem for both realms. Apart from the normal political stuff and estrangement from each realm, each land and its people were thriving.

Jude Mathis was a former medical artes student but is a current Spyrite researcher and he was one of the main people responsible for this peace.

He was only enjoying a small evening stroll in the small yet beautiful illuminant city of Fennmont, it was quite cold and the wintry breeze was enough to make anybody flinch in the weather conditions. He had spent so much time in his office where he would just counculate and make deductions on how he could finally perfect Spyrix technology and make it so they don't kill spirits, although he felt like taking a stroll and getting some fresh air.

But he was so very unaware of how his life was just about to take a dramatic turn.

Jude knew he would never grow tired of how beautiful the streets and skies looked here. The sky was a beautiful green hue with stars twinkling in a peculiar pattern and the trees complimented that as they were alit with a spectacular brilliance. The beautiful illuminance from the trees really high lit the sky above and it made the young man smile a bit as he walked at a leisurely pace with his eyes wandering up so he could see the immensity of how lovely the night was in this city.

Jude loved this town and even though it wouldn't replace his original home in the peaceful boondocks town of Leronde, this place would always hold a special place in his heart.

However it was at that moment when he noticed that he was beginning to pass by a special place and the researcher decided to stop when he recognised this specific place he had just been conveniently walking absentmindedly by. Nostalgia hit him hard and Jude walked over towards the guard rail and leaned over to peer down into the water that flowed directly under the bridge he had stood on. The water lapped and turned over on itself repeatedly in an endless cycle and it was almost enchanting.

Jude's amber eyes softened as he stared into his reflection that shimmered in the water, the mirror image Jude stared down at was looking quite disgruntled and he let out a dissatisfied moan and grimaced when he noticed that his ebony black hair had become more spiky and dishevelled than normal; this served as a reminder that he hadn't taken care of his hair for awhile. Not only that but the lab coat he wore had gone crisp and grey to indicate that it hadn't been washed in some time.

The young man's posture deflated like a balloon and he rubbed his temple irritably "Ughhh...I'm going to have to take better care of myself, I look like a mess."

He took his mind away from his appearance for a moment and recollected what had happened over the past year. He had been involved with his second big adventure and he had since been reunited with the great spirit Muzét, king Gaius, Alvin, Rowen, Leia, Elize and Teepo and met some new friends like Ludger and Elle and even Rollo the cat. The adventure was enjoyable and he was happy to have been reunited with his friends and he was ecstatic to see Milla Maxwell, lord of spirits and love of his life, once again.

He gazed back longingly into the calm blue water and he started to wish that Milla was by his side. He missed her so much and he wanted more time with her, although he understood that she had her duties and he had his own but that hardly ceased the sting in his soul whilst muttered his own thoughts aloud.

"It's been a long time...I wonder if she's doing okay?"

Jude shook his head and started to think back once again.

This place, right under this bridge, was where he had met the love of his life; Milla Maxwell. Initially she was just breaking into an old laboratory to try and hunt down the potentially dangerous lance of Kresnik and destroy all the Spyrixes, he had just dropped something important into the water and went to retrieve it when the two first met. Eventually, the woman he had met had revealed herself to be the great spirit Maxwell in a beautiful woman's body.

After that he had been dragged into hi-jinx after hi-jinx and made new friends along the way while he had eventually fell head over heels with her; he wanted to just stand by her side and hold her hand. Blinking and shaking his head to rid himself of the memory, Jude sighed as he looked at the tiny glass pendant that had been tied around his neck and it was a gift he received from the woman he so adored.

Milla had gone to live in the spirit realm with her big sister Muzét and he hadn't heard from her much since, although he was still hopelessly smitten with her...even though he tried to not let this show and interfere with his work to try and make the world a better place to keep his promise to her. He couldn't let her down.

Jude peered down gloomily into his reflection and gently leaned forwards to let his arms hang over the edge of the railing that kept him from falling into the deep abyss below. But he was forced to withdraw when a sudden arctic chill had brushed him and gained a shudder from him, it was very unpleasant to say the least.

Jude finally moved away from the bridge and went to continue his trek home but was halted whence he heard a distant noise.

He froze as the sound pierced the silence of the evening. His amber eyes widened and his heart stopped dead in his chest as he recognised that sound, it was a sound that sent a sickening shiver down his spinal cord and it made his throat twist in a tight pretzel knot. But it was a sound that was wildly out of place in such harsh conditions and it made him all the more surprised that he was hearing it.

It was the cries of a child.

Jude couldn't even control himself as he found his legs moving involuntarily whilst he broke into a hastened sprint to try and track down the source of the sounds. A burst of adrenaline was pumping all the blood in his body straight to his legs to give him an energy boost, to try and get there as quick as humanly possible. As he came closer to the origins of the crying, they grew louder and louder to indicate that he was nearing the location where he was supposed to find the source.

The young man didn't even know what to expect now.

He rushed down the stairs leading towards the river he and Milla and met and took the narrow strait that was a somewhat calm and quiet little pathway alongside the small stream that fishermen would sit on should they decide to try and fish with the assistance of Spirit artes.

It didn't take the heroic researcher too long before he found himself skidding to another abrupt stop when he approached a little alleyway that was shielded by another bridge up top. The area was narrow, ominous and it was unsettling. Upon peering into the alleyway, it appeared to have been dark -almost pitch black- and void of much life other than a couple of rats that squeaked and chirped aloud as they scattered about the old place sheltered by a sturdy brick bridge.

Boxes upon boxes were stacked up and it wasn't very well kept clean since Jude smelt the strong musty aroma from where he stood just outside the area. Jude couldn't very well leave a child, if there was one at all, all alone in some disgusting alley beneath a bridge so he cautiously stepped forwards and soon found himself staring directly down at the original source of the crying from before. A pink bundle wrapped up in a blanket was what he found and he couldn't believe his eyes at what he was seeing.

It was a very little girl. She had blonde hair with jet black streaks and tips, she had pale skin, she was tightly wrapped up inside a blanket and she had a tiny button nose. Jude wasn't able to discern much else except that the girl was probably around a year or so of age, so she was a very small child, barely a toddler. Kneeling down, Jude noticed that the child had fallen asleep; she had probably exhausted herself from all the crying.

But Jude was very concerned that this small girl was in danger of catching peunomia or even a horrible cold, she already seemed to have been quite feverish as indicated by her unhealthily red cheeks and the fact that she had been left out in such harsh conditions.

"Who would leave a poor baby out here like this?" Jude asked himself aloud as he frowned.

Not only was this little girl clearly abandoned but she didn't look to be in great shape, despite that she was wrapped in blankets she seemed to have been a slight bit emaciated, her ribs were starting to show and she didn't seem fully aware of anything as she laid still in the blankets she was wrapped up in whilst laying idle and unresponsive.

As the man inched closer to the bundle, he started to notice that the air around him was very moist and damp; it was as if there was rainwater hanging in the air when it hadn't been raining recently at all.

It was odd but the Spyrite scientist decided not to linger on it.

Although Jude had to wonder why this little girl was left all alone. He just couldn't wrap his brain around this and he hated unanswered questions! He was sympathetic and gently bent down and picked her up, readjusting her in his arms to make her comfortable, and he slowly got to his legs. But the baby started to become very fussy as she was suddenly hoisted into the air and started to softly yowl and struggle in the man's arms.

Jude was shocked, he hadn't anticipated this!

But he quickly regained his composure and shushed the weak child and crooned at her.

"There, there, little one. You're safe now, shhh..."

Surprisingly the infant quickly calmed down as she quickly ceased crying and relaxed in Jude's arms, falling asleep. The Spyrite researcher knew that the little girl was probably very weak and malnourished and it was that reason alone that she probably stopped crying and fell asleep so quickly, she was probably extremely weakened and being out in this harsh cold wouldn't improve her chances of surviving.

Sighing to himself, he started to walk back with the child.

He knew he would have time to question more about who had abandoned her later, he only knew he had to get this tiny little girl help. She didn't look to have been faring incredibly well since she was even still tossing and turning with all her feeble might in the man's arms as he held her.

It didn't take too long before he got back to his office and he straight away started using the medical artes expertise he clung on to for two years in meds school and from his upbringing.

Jude kept a sharp eye on the child as he insisted on sitting by her bedside to check her vital signs throughout the night. She was still running a high temperature and her breathing was slightly wheezy as she slept, but it was something unrelated to these that troubled Jude more about this little girl even though those factors were worrisome too, and was one simple thing: she seemed to resemble Milla quite a lot yet she looked somewhat different.

Even though she looked so much like Milla in the face, no matter how impossible it seemed, there were also other things that bothered the young Spyrite researcher and the things in question where things he didn't exactly know how to explain; he just couldn't place a finger on what they were, no matter how hard he tried.

This child, this little girl, slept soundly in the spare bed as she shifted and moaned in her state of unconsciousness.

"Where did your parents go...?" Jude once again inquired his thoughts aloud, continuing to look over this child as she slept.

Jude kept a very long watch on the tiny girl and eventually started to grow rather tired himself. He fought off a yawn as he decided to check on this toddler's status again. He leaned forwards and he gingerly lain his palm on top of the tiny girl's forehead again and he frowned a lot more as he felt that she was scalding hot and quite sweaty, she was feeling supremely clammy and she still didn't seem to be fairing well.

"Sheesh, you're very hot..." He muttered, more to himself than to her. He had been talking to himself a lot lately and it was a tad troubling since he knew that it was the first sign of madness, he guessed that as he hadn't had many visitors that he was making up for it by conversing with only himself. It was quite sad, really.

He got up to perform more healing artes on the weakened girl's tiny body.

He knelt down at the girl's bedside and held his arm out over her. He closed his eyes and inhaled heavily before exhaling a hard sigh of easement, trying to relax and focus all his thoughts on recalling the proper medical spirit channelling procedure that would enable him to diagnose and heal anything that might be causing these temperature spikes.

Within moments his hand started to glow with a near-blinding radiance and he hovered it over the child, not noticing that her body was starting to glow simultaneously with his hand on account that his eyes were closed. The glowing died down within moments and Jude reopened his eyes and looked the youngling over again. He put his hand back down on the girl's head and smiled a bit, stroking her damp forehead.

"Hmm. She seems to be fine. She might just be feverish because she spent awhile outside..." He muttered softly as he got up on his feet again and went to retrieve a damp cloth that he had hung by the sink and he wrung it out, letting all the droplets of loose water spill out on to the floor before he wandered back over to the girl and applied the wet cloth to her forehead. The infant squirmed uncomfortably upon feeling the cloth but she quickly became still again.

The young scientist sighed as he pulled up a stool and sat once again at the little girl's bedside.

He hadn't realised how tired he was until he let himself ease into the seat. His eyes were like weights and he found it particularly hard to keep them open, his mind was starting to shut down and his eyes closed whilst he started to drifted off into a dreamless slumber. His thoughts started to push into the deep dark void of his mind, he wondered about this girl's parents and her family and even what her name was.

He would have actually fallen asleep if the silence hadn't been broken by a sudden high-pitched sound.

Jude's eyes snapped open in alarm and he looked at the little girl who he had saved and his face tightened with intense worry at what he saw. The child tossed and turned in bed with tears running down her sweet little cheeks. Each whimper she choked out was like a high-pitched squeak and her tiny voice sounded strained and raw, it was as if she had yelled so much that her teeny voice had just broken with her throat croaky.

Jude had to suspect that it was when she was crying herself hoarse longer than he had thought.

Regardless, Jude suddenly found himself leaning forwards and curling his arms around the struggling toddler so he could cuddle her close against his chest. She was almost the size of a loaf of bread that she fit so well inside his arms and it almost made the man's heart melt like butter in a microwave.

Jude felt bad that she was clearly so upset, though, and knew that she was probably having a fever dream of some sort.

"It's okay now, don't cry. I'm here." He whispered as he softly brushed his fingers through the child's short blonde/black-streaked hair in an effort to comfort her. He gently started to move his arms in a delicate side-to-side rocking motion and, much to his surprise, the child seemed to have been starting to quiet down. It was nice to know that she appeared to like his voice.

He rocked the little girl for awhile and eventually got her to calm down as she nuzzled her face into the young man's chest. Tears still stained her tiny cheeks, though, and she let out the occasional soft whimper as she subconsciously clung on to his white lab coat. A strange sense of pride swelled in Jude's chest as he looked over the little creature with a little smile stretching across his lips. His amber irises glowed like fiery embers in the faint light of the room and he started to grow drowsy again whilst he sat up holding the child.

The tiny child finally closed her eyes and succumbed to sleep once more.

Jude let himself relax again but his mind was still clouded with confusion whence the questions from before started to arise again. Where did this child come from, why had she been abandoned, how could anyone just leave such a precious child all alone to die? He couldn't finish these thoughts as he quickly fell fast asleep. Whence he was rendered, for the most part, unconscious, the upper portion of his body tipped forwards and was sprawled out on top of the bed and his head rested on the blankets.

Even the child in his arms finally seemed to be at peace as she finally slept softly.

It was a heart-warming sight too!

The scientist's whole world had faded into black whence sleep took hold and Jude didn't know what was going to happen when he awoke the next morning and he had little knowing that he was in for a rough ride.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, here's chapter two! Sorry it took awhile to put up but I was a bit busy and wanting to see how this story did. I think its doing quite well so far and I'm proud of it, but I hope you guys all like it too.**

 **Anyways, this is where Jude finds Ami.**

 **Lets see what happens next!**

 **Please review, I love the reviews!**

 **-Chloemcg**


	3. Lightning realisation

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

Sunlight cut through the glass of the single hung window like a knife slicing through melting butter. The beams of golden light shone through the thick acrylic glass without much (if not any) difficulty and the sunlight of the new day was almost blindingly radiant.

As a matter of fact, the whole room was basically shimmering with the beautiful sunny glow of daylight.

Jude's amber eyes slowly peeled open whence he started to steadily slip into consciousness. But he quickly shut them again whence the beams of sunlight stung his eyeballs and he sluggishly raised his arm to shield them from the punishing stinging of morning, but to no avail. When he was disappointed to discover that his efforts were in vain, Jude reluctantly removed his arm from his face and blinked repeatedly.

His intellectual mind was clouded with fatigue whence he tried to rub his eyes to further awake himself. He slowly woke himself up and tried to get the sleep out of his eyes, only now realising that he had dropped down on the bed and was leaning hard against the front of it.

The Spyrite researcher let out a long moan when he started to see the world through blurry vision, he had supposed that he had been so tired that upon awakening he would see the world through blurry patches of colour before his eyesight finally mellowed down and he could see clearly.

When his sight did clear, he had blinked multiple times and eventually came to find himself staring into a pair of big, curious, honey-coloured eyes. But the realisation hit Jude like a slap to the face when he started to remember exactly what happened last night, as well as starting to come to terms with the reality of his situation.

The little girl was awake!

Jude instantly jerked himself upwards into a sitting position and stared down at the small girl whose eyes reflected his own curiosity back at him, those giant innocent eyes were just overflowing with adorable childlike wonder.

Jude could have sworn that he felt his heart basically explode from how sweet this tiny little girl was, although he knew that he had to check her over and try and discern her age and see if she could possibly shed some light on who her folks are and where they went.

But when he dared to move a fraction the child grew very frightened and she squirmed around, gripping on tight to the corners of the blankets as she tried to conceal the bright red tint that had painted her beautiful chubby cheeks. Her big eyes shimmered in the golden rays of sunlight as she tried to bury her face into the duvets of the big bed.

Jude was not surprised to get this kind of reaction since this was probably the very first time the little girl saw him fully conscious.

Regardless, he pushed the fact that she was afraid aside and smiled gently at the small child and proceeded to lean towards her with the kindest expression he could muster; he didn't want to frighten her anymore then she already was.

"Hi there! What's your name?" He asked light-heartedly.

But he was met with the further inevitable expected reaction: Fear.

The poor little girl's eyes started to well up with tears as she tried to back off from the stranger and she almost ended up falling out of the bed altogether. But Jude managed to react quickly, lurching forwards and grab her wrist to pull her back up on to the bed so she could not fall and hurt herself. When Jude held her arm, the girl continued to squirm and she let out loud cries of fright whilst she kicked and screamed.

Jude's eyes widened with shock. He would have been lying if he claimed that he didn't expect some level of fright coming from the infant but he hadn't expected a type of fear this strong!

Unsure of what else to do, Jude held the child at a distance to avoid any kicks that he may receive should he hold her any closer. Tears started to stream down the poor girl's cheeks as she squirmed and tried her best to resist and fight out of his hold with her legs jetting and kicking frantically.

The small child wailed at full volume and Jude grimaced at the piercing howls that burst from the tiny girl's lungs. It was always a wonder how something so small could produce such a sound that could probably shatter the earth...and it kind of did, in some way or another. Her cries of distress actually seemed to make the whole room shake as if there was some sort of earthquake.

Tables and chairs tipped over, plant pots and framed photographs fell to the floor with a smash, glass shattered and other objects shook in time with the furious tremors of the room.

Jude was startled by this as he glanced hurriedly at his shaking surroundings, trying to keep himself from letting go of the screaming child and falling over himself. His eyes were wide with panic and his throat was tight. Needless to say, he was very confused as to what was transpiring right now! Just what was this chain reaction?

How was this small child able to do this? Jude was well aware that this was no convenience!

Nevertheless his top priority was to calm this little girl down and then, hopefully, preventing his home from collapsing into a pile of rubble on top of them.

"H-Hey! It's okay! I w-won't hurt you, I promise, just p-please stop crying!" He shouted over the sounds of shaking and falling objects as he tried to keep his voice in check as to not betray his fear at this very instant.

The small infant actually started to quiet down as her frowning mouth quivered and tears were overflowing in her big eyes. She stared at Jude whilst she whimpered fearfully, stopping her legs from kicking and she finally stopped howling as loud as she could and thus some order was restored.

The Spyrite researcher held the small girl at a better distance so their eyes could meet -wise and smart eyes to frightened and childish eyes.

Jude couldn't explain it but he felt a sudden connection to this small infant, it made his mind whirl and his heart race as if it were trying to tell him something. He looked down at his own chest for a moment, trying to observe what was making his heart pound so much. The whole atmosphere had grown awkwardly silent before Jude had started to try and speak once more whilst he put a smile on his face and looked back at the tiny little girl whom had obvious control of some sort of power and ability, although it drove him to the brink of frustration merely thinking about it.

"So, can you tell me your name?" Jude asked, finally finding his voice amidst the events that had occurred moments ago. He knew that was a stupid question to ask, though.

This child probably couldn't even speak yet! She was quite young and she was also barely old enough to start walking if he had to guess. She may not have had a good grasp of her own memory just yet so she may not even recall her own name.

The small child stayed silent as she sniffled and looked up at him with big eyes that were filled with bright-eyed innocence. She only stared blankly and blinked at him with utter confusion.

Jude decided to ask another question "...Um, do you know where you are?"

The child looked down sadly in response. That told Jude that she could probably (and remarkably) understand him on some level or other and that finding this kid's parents, if they still even wanted her, would prove way more difficult if this lost little child couldn't even recall where she had lived or, Maxwell forbid, where she was.

Jude slowly asked a third question "Okay. Do you know where your mummy and daddy went?"

At this inquiry, the tiny girl looked up with intrigue and stared at the researcher of Spyrites. Her eyes were now overflowing with confusion as she seemed to reluctantly stretch her small pudgy arms out towards him, reaching to try and get a better look at him in anyway she could.

This response both astonished and confused Jude.

He would have expected a different reaction than this. Maybe she did have a slightly developed memory? Perhaps she was just wanting something, considering that kids (especially smaller ones) had very short attention spans. But this tiny girl seemed totally fixated on him suddenly despite that she wanted to get as far away from him as possible mere minutes ago.

The young man held her by the underarms and he started to become utterly confused. Just who was this girl?

He had no clue on how to tackle this situation. There was no book or tutor sessions that he could recall that said on how to look after a small toddler who you find one night all alone! Plus there was something mysterious about this small child, Jude couldn't even hope to explain why he felt that but there was just something strange about this little girl.

Jude was just starting to slip off into a long mental self-debating session when a small gurgling sound recaptured his attention and he looked at the infant he held in his arms. He frowned a bit, concern taking over his facial features as he examined the small child and the frown quickly morphed into a small grin as he quickly deduced that the gurgling was emanating from the small child's stomach.

She let out a small whine as she clutched her growling tummy and her big eyes started to tear up once again.

Jude, amused by this, asked her "Heh. Are you hungry?"

The girl looked Jude right in the eye and looked down again as if to confirm the man's suspicions.

Jude just couldn't hold back a chuckle. This little girl, for lack of a name, was so adorable and he couldn't resist but let his heart melt for her; his heart raced and he felt extreme pleasure in simply carrying her in his arms! He never experienced such a feeling before but he loved it and didn't wish to release it now that it was in his grasp.

He pulled the child close to him, despite that she put up a bit of resistance, and proceeded to carry her into the small kitchen so he could probably whip something up for her tiny gut to properly digest. Besides he didn't know how long it was since this small girl had last eaten anything and she could have been starving for all he knew!

It took a minute before the young man had sorted out something edible for the young one he had found.

Jude slowly placed a small plate that had a small hill of edible green mush sat upon the saucer in front of the mysterious toddler who didn't hesitate in grabbing the mush into her fists, never touching the spoon that sat neatly beside the mush atop the plate and basically devouring it all. She tossed each little bit of the glop which was her breakfast into her mouth and didn't even bother chewing it before she swallowed it whole.

Whilst the child wolfed down what he supposed was her first meal in a long time, Jude started to drift off into a land of his own imagination.

He had found this odd little tyke all alone in an alleyway. She was crying and was running a high fever that was probably due to exposure to the rain and cold. There was no note or anything that could point to finding the girl's parents and, other then still having remnants of her high temperature and having being starved, she seemed pretty healthy as far as very small children go.

This would be a tough mystery to solve, that much had become obvious.

Jude suddenly blinked with surprise when he noticed something odd about the girl. She had abruptly ceased wolfing down the mush and she seemed to have been constantly shifting uncomfortably on her seated spot upon the surface of the table. She had become fidgety as she whined irritably whilst flailing her small podgy arms in an attempt to get at her own back, clearly it was in dire need of itching or something.

He was confused about this and was even more so when a small fold of a piece of paper poked out of the top of the neck hole of the girl's long pink gown. Jude quickly grabbed hold of the paper and softly pulled it out and instantly relived the little one's itchy behaviour. The girl gave a soft sigh of relief before she resumed to her mission of consuming her breakfast completely.

Clearly she had a monstrous appetite!

But what was that paper?

"What's this...?" Jude thought aloud, eyes wide with shock whilst he held the paper in his hands. He was surprise that he had found this important clue and that he hadn't noticed this before now. The paper had been neatly folded four times so it took on a rectangular shape and it looked to have an air of significant importance to it, making his mind reel with confusion as his fingertips brushed along the paper and subtly tightened themselves around the corners, feeling them tingle with sudden anticipation.

Why would a piece of paper make him feel this way?

Jude couldn't stand the tension any longer and abruptly unfolded the letter and he started to read the letter, squinting his eyes at the near illegible scrawl and scribbles that could barely pass itself off as literature.

This was worse then Leia's writing...and that's saying a lot!

The paper held such a weight to it and it wasn't a literal one which made the world slip out from underneath him, but it was more of the atmosphere this message had brought with it...and the shocking truth it had held within the page. It was a true which Jude knew would change his life forever and he was almost scared of what this would reveal. His almost collapsed under the intense terror that had snatched him in a skull-crushing grip, an intense chill had brushed passed him and he felt like he would going to pass out when he finally plucked up the courage to read the note.

He had not felt so much hesitation since he had first journeyed with Milla...

The letter was a jumble of words so the researcher of Spyrites had a hard time focusing on each sentence. It had quickly all blended together to create a sea of letters, twisting and twining and combining so they could burst and spell a mind-numbing yet unbelievable truth; it was a truth that Jude had almost refused to believe.

" **Dear Jude,** " it read " **I realise that it has been some time since we had seen each other last but we need your urgent assistance. My little sister, Milla, had apparently been impregnated by you for some time and had given birth to this small child not too long ago. The child has been named Ami and Milla has entrusted you with the task of caring for her, due to the fact that apparently you can give her necessities what she cannot.** "

Jude's head felt like it was about to explode from all this new information but somehow he found the strength to keep reading.

" **We don't know, as of yet, if this youngling has both human and spirit traits but we shall want you to observe her development as you should realise that you are now the soul guardian of the first known offspring of a spirit and human. Look after her well! -Muzét.** "

His heart was basically exploding from how fast it was beating and all the colour had drained from his face, his deep golden brown eyes starting to lose its healthy glow and glaze over from dropping blood pressure.

Poor Jude's weight started to tip back and forth like a boat on some busily rolling tidal waves and his vision was starting to blur and grow increasingly spiny. He felt as if all the energy in his legs had completely evaporated into thin air and his heart started to pound loud in his eardrums. He would have certainly fainted if he had not managed to recognise that he was going down and frantically found himself and felt his grip tighten on a nearby chair just as the floor was rushing up to meet him.

He shook his head to try and regain his composure and hoping to maintain some level of consciousness. He wasn't going to let himself faint like a distressed sissy schoolgirl! That was not anyway to act in front of...his child...

That was when the truth started to completely sink in and he looked over to the busily eating child sitting on the table.

This small girl was his daughter.

The child, apparently named Ami, was born from the love that Milla Maxwell and himself had shared.

While it was true that Jude and Milla spent an awful lot of time together, the both of them had been very discreet about their relationship so no one quite knew that their relationship had been taken that far.

But Jude hadn't done anything "dirty" with the new great spirit Maxwell so he supposed that she must have become pregnant during or after that adventure with Ludger and the fractured dimensions, while he had been tethering with her since that was the way spirits...well...'mated' and he guessed that it had been inadvertent since he hadn't known until now what exactly doing that did to spirits.

Jude shakily propped himself up with the stool and slowly went about in climbing back to his feet to completely get his balance back under wraps. When he did this, he walked back over towards the small girl who had been seated on the surface of the kitchen; his throat felt like it had been stuffed with cotton balls and his feet felt like they had been plunged into ice cold water so it had been difficult to move himself.

It felt like the slowest stride he made before he had finally picked little Ami up off the table and held her in his arms and allowed her to get comfortable in his embrace.

The tiny youngling looked up at the man with big curious eyes and a messy face.

Jude could swear that he had lost his voice for several seconds. He just lost the capability to speak because he had been rendered speechless by the big news that he had just been informed of. His heart felt like it was being crushed by several emotions and he felt so overwhelmed that he could hardly breathe. His hands trembled as he finally readjusted little Ami in his arms and held her right in front of his face so their eyes could meet.

He was blown away when he was reminded how identical her eyes were to his.

He struggled to find the words but he had somehow managed to find his voice and he started to speak to her with his tone smoothed with a thin layer of anxiety "U-Um...alright, OK...Ami...I h-have to tell you something..."

Ami looked at him patiently as she awaited the life-altering news that was about to leave the Spyrite scientists mouth. She seemed to have been fully aware of the atmosphere that had befallen the both of them and that he needed her complete silence and attention right now, so she didn't dare make a sound. She seemed pretty bright for her age which was probably something she inherited from him.

Jude had no idea if she could understand him but he felt the need to tell her the news anyhow so she could know how world-shattering this piece of information was. He drew out a long and shaky breath to try and calm his nerves, despite that his chest felt like a tight box with his organs bunched up inside it. His fingers tightened around Ami uncontrollably and his teeth started to chatter, a bead of sweat started to trickle down his face.

He choked back a gulp "I...I...A-Apparently I'm your f-father..."

Ami didn't really react much upon hearing this news at first but her eyes did noticeably widen a tad after a couple of moments. Her mouth opened a bit and her developing brain started to get a firm grip on this reality of what she had just been told.

When Jude spoke those words to himself, he suddenly found himself grinning like a fool. His eyes lit up like fireworks in the night sky and his frown had turned into a giddy little grin, it was almost borderline insane really...was he actually losing his mind? Now that he was just grasping this news, he was actually pretty happy because he had kind of always wanted to become a father.

The two shared a very lengthy awkward silence after that.

Ami just stared hard at her alleged father while Jude just stared at her right back.

Neither of them could bring themselves to believe it, honestly, and it was a long time before Ami finally started to show some sort of reaction while she started cautiously reaching towards him with one of her little pudgy arms. Her eyes were large and swimming with uncertainty; her cheeks were becoming increasingly rosy and her brows knitted together to paint a look of curiosity towards him.

Jude smiled and brought her close to him and gave his new daughter a light hug, an action that made the poor girl squeak with shock and surprise. While he had quickly become cautiously comfortable with this idea it appeared that little Ami was still pretty weary of him when she tried to push him away from her as she tried with all her feeble might to distance herself from this man while her little pudgy legs were jetting rapidly and delivering a couple good blows to his chest and stomach.

Jude had to suppose that he was going a little too fast with this whole revelation thing.

Ami managed to let her leg ram hard right into her alleged father's stomach and made him let her go. Upon falling to the ground Ami quickly retreated back to the bed and clumsily stumbled towards the back of the bed to try and hide from him.

Although she fell flat on her stomach halfway there and ungracefully tumbled with her arms and legs spreading out in all directions right from underneath her and when this happened, the tiny girl whimpered.

Her big eyes started to overflow with tears and her nose was starting to become bright red, her spine was beginning to become hard and rigid. Little whiney noises started to burst forth from her trembling lips and she still seemed to have been terribly afraid of Jude.

Jude quickly managed to recover from the hard kick his abdomen received and he watched with eyes filled with concern as his new daughter hid from him as if he were some sort of monster, his heart even ached a little bit. He slowly eased himself to sit on the floor and watched with a patient expression etched on his face as the small half-spirit whimpered a cried softly from behind the table.

He decided to just leave her be for the moment and ponder on what he could do to earn the little one's trust, Jude had to experiment on stuff she liked and disliked and he knew that it would be a major challenge...especially considering that he had just discovered the life-changing fact that he was a father now!

Honestly he wanted to lay down and let the reality sink in a bit more but he wasn't willing to leave a child alone crying with a good conscience. He thought deeply on the subject and gently leaned back against the wall, thinking over and over about what he could do to make little Ami like him better.

He figured that it was his duty to make this innocent little girl as happy as possible and he promised that he was going to do everything in his power to make it happen.

( _Poor kid, she's probably so frightened right now because she's in such an unfamiliar place with a strange guy like me...how can I win her over?_ )

* * *

 **A/N: Ok, I edited this chapter and made it longer so now I hope you guys like it!**

 **Jude now knows of Ami's true identity and where she came from. But we will have to see what happens when everybody else meets the young half-spirit and how Jude will explain this to his parents, that should be eventful.**

 **And if you're asking why Ami has aged so quick then don't worry, I shall explain all eventually!**

 **Anyways, I hope you like the chapter so far and please leave some reviews.**

 **Thanks, guys!**

 **-Chloemcg**


	4. Trustful visits

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

His head spun, his heart raced, his chest and stomach clenched.

Jude held his head in his hands, his knees bunched up against his stomach as he sat with his back propped upon the wall. It was an uncomfortable position to be in and he felt his spinal cord twist around painfully as he just sat on the floor amongst several debris and papers that had been scattered around the room. He hadn't moved an inch for a long time as he was still trying to comprehend what he had just been informed of and boy was it huge news for him to take in.

He, doctor Jude Mathis, was a father!

He had no idea when or how this happened...alright, that wasn't quite true. He wasn't going to deny the very minimal intimacy that threaded through his relationship with Milla but he was still finding it hard to contemplate on! From what he could gather he had somehow managed to impregnate the great Lord of spirits and his lover, Milla Maxwell, and now he had been saddled with their very small child.

It was still tough to get his head around it, honestly!

Not only that but the infant in question was also scared to death of him and had retreated to a dark sheltered place beneath Jude's desk, clearly staying as far from him as possible. The girl was named Ami and she seemed to have been scared to death of him which wasn't all that shocking considering that he was a bit of a stranger to her and she probably hadn't been in contact with another human before.

Jude contemplated long and hard on this.

How could he show this kid that he wasn't a threat?

How could he prove himself?

He had to use a soft approach and he had to take it as gently as he possibly could; from what he could tell at this point, Ami seemed to have some possessed sort of special power and could easily bring the building down at the drop of a hat should she have a temper tantrum. She could probably manipulate some of the elements and forces of nature if she wished, all that power at her beck and call.

Honestly it was quite fascinating to think about.

But he still had to think of a way to try and coax the tiny thing out from her hiding place. The small compartment beneath the desk seemed like a nice little den for a small child such as her to hang out and chill, Ami seemed to feel content under there but she still also appeared to be quite anxious around her "father" and everything else.

The small spirit half-ling looked at her surroundings with glimmering amber eyes that were swimming with emotion. She sunk to lay on her tummy and she made an endearing little noise when her eyes lain on Jude once again, he had apparently managed to get a glimpse at her with eyes just as curious as hers were.

Jude stood over his desk, thinking up of a way to get Ami to come out of there.

He snapped his fingers and grinned when he thought of something as he got down on his hands and knees so he could meet her on eye-level. He very slowly made his way to the small rectangular opening under the desk and stopped at the entrance, sitting down patiently so he could keep eye contact. He wasn't very surprised when Ami continued to try and back away from him, but she had nowhere left to hide and the doctor scientist sort of blocked her escape route.

Jude plucked up his courage and managed to smile at the child with his amber eyes softening, he placed his hand down in front of her and he watched as she stared curiously at the hand he had rested against the floor. He didn't even care if he got splinters and little bits of wood sticking in his palm.

"Hey, Ami, watch this!" He said hushedly, closing his eyes and focusing hard.

He concentrated on transferring most of the mana in his body to perform a similar feat to a healing arte and he poured every drop of his focus into doing this. His face had become creased and big droplets of sweat cascaded down his face, his whole body was trembling and twitching and he clenched his teeth to try and bite back the urge to slump over and collapse from the strain this was putting on his body.

He managed to peel his eyes open a fraction and managed to smile through clenched teeth as he saw that his hand was glowing a bright green, and Ami appeared to have been very intrigued by this as her huge eyes looked down on the hand displayed in front of her, innocently touching the mystically glowing larger hand that she was presented with.

Jude winced as he didn't know how long his healing artes would stay cast and he felt a gentle comforting feeling overwhelm him as he felt the small girl's teeny hands grasp his hand and he even found the strength to pull a genuinely heartfelt grin as he looked at her weakly.

"S-See? I'm not going to hurt you, Ami, you can trust me..."

Jude didn't know if she understood his words, being so young, but she did look at him with understanding as she actually smiled up at him and held her arms up a bit as though asking to be picked up.

The young man hesitated, though, as he didn't want to receive anymore of those kicks to his abdomen since the little creature's legs were very powerful for being so small and minuscule and he wasn't sure if the power jetting from her little feet were strong just because she was part spirit or if her strength was normal and he was just thinking

it was more sore then it should have been.

Nevertheless he ceased casting that arte and almost instantly fell forwards, feeling drained from casting such a strong healing arte, and the glowing to his hand stopped.

Jude shook the weakness away and slowly sat up. He crossed his legs in order to keep himself from tipping over and passing out and he started using his legs as an anchor of some sorts. He was careful to back up out of the small space beneath his desk before picking himself up off the floor and he pressed his back firmly against the wall.

Ami reluctantly came out of hiding and clumsily crawled over to him, somehow managing to climb into Jude's lap.

The protector of spirits/creator of Spyrite technology just couldn't resist the urge to pick the small form up into his embrace and he started to examine her. He studied each and every dent and formation of the small child's face with those eyes that exactly mirrored his own, that blonde and ebony-mixed mess of tufts and curls that grew on top of her head, her adorable little button nose and her sweet little cheeks.

She was just the cutest thing!

Jude didn't know what came over him but he instinctively drew the small child close, holding her in his arms while he lain her in his arms protectively. It didn't take long until she drifted off into a nice sleep whilst she curled up in the young man's comforting embrace and she had clasped one of his fingers in her tiny hand.

That same realisation of who she was holding came flooding back but it was more of a gentle dawning instead of a forceful whack to the head, his mind had froze and his heart had skipped a beat.

This was his daughter, his precious little girl.

This sweet youngling was Milla's gift to him and he was going to cherish it.

Ami's soft breathing was like a melody to Jude as he cradled her small sleeping form against his chest, making sure not to shift too much and awaken her. For some reason he had actually felt this unfamiliar sensation swirl in his chest and he never thought that he could feel such adoration for something so small. It just wasn't scientifically possible, not to him! He felt so astonished that he could so quickly become enamoured by such a tiny creature, a tiny creature that was born from him and Milla's love, a tiny creature that was now dependant on him to cherish.

The small girl's quietly sleepy snores caught Jude's attention and he just couldn't hold back a grin as he felt little Ami's warm puffs of breath against his chest and he even found himself swaying his body very slowly from side-to-side. He had no idea what exactly impelled him to do this but he knew that he was kind of enjoying this, and he also felt pretty happy to be holding Ami in his arms.

Jude closed his eyes and rubbed Ami's back gingerly as he started to drown in this blissful moment of sweetness. His heart exploded into a warmth that spread to every part of his anatomy. He never wanted this moment to end, he could have been perfectly content with holding his new toddling daughter for all eternity and that's how long he wanted to stay like this.

Unfortunately the moment was completely ruined by an abrupt pounding on the door.

Jude's eyes snapped open.

He was forced to pull the tiny human/spirit hybrid away from him in an attempt to distance himself from her for a couple of seconds. He had completely forgotten about where he was for a couple of moments and he even broke into a cold sweat, he couldn't hide the dismay that had become etched upon his facial expression.

He sprang to his feet, startled, almost dropping little Ami as he scrambled to regain a more professional composure. He almost forgot about the very important fact that he was supposed to be working and not looking after a bubbly little bundle with humongous levels of of-the-scale cuteness!

Ami was so startled about the sudden motion and her eyes fluttered drowsily open, making confused moaning sounds as she looked at her surroundings for a moment to get some visual clues as to where she was. She was completely oblivious to the fact that her father had suddenly become a nervous wreck.

Jude quickly realised that his office was in no state to have any visitors and the fact that it was very untidy with papers and animate objects strewn all over the floor.

But wait...never mind the papers!

What about the child!?

If anyone in the building were to discover that she was part spirit then his students would probably use her as some kind of experiment! He was fully aware that he was probably being paranoid but he didn't want his new child to be poked and prodded to the point where she would probably become scared and bring the whole building down!

( _Oh no, oh no, oh no! What can I do, what can I do!?_ ) He thought panickedly.

Jude frantically looked around to hide the tiny thing, his amber eyes wide and frantic, and he had to hurry since he didn't want to arouse any suspicions. He scuttled in place whilst zipping around the room in a major frantic attempt to find a place to stash Ami; he knew how hard this would be as the tiny girl probably didn't understand the desperate circumstances and he continued to rush around the room.

His heart was pounding so fast that he was at risk of going into cardiac arrest. It wasn't until Jude heard a familiar voice behind the door that his panic grew tenfold, his brain became a puddle of uselessness the second that voice -although it was muffled behind the door- had reached his ears.

"Dr. Mathis, is everything alright in there?"

Jude's face distorted with naked horror whence he instantly recognised that voice. It sounded like one of the officials in the building! That made this situation far worse, what would they say when they seen a small child with him and what would they say upon discovering her parentage?

"C-C-Chancellor Marcia!?"

He knew that the woman was close friends with Elize, a friend of his, but he didn't want her to know about this! His mind was in loops and his heart was twisting like a wrung, damp cloth. Jude had to hide Ami but he didn't exactly know where he could hide her and he knew that the Chancellor just might spot her should he hide her in the bed and there's a chance that the small child would make a slight ruckus should she become needy, that and she had just began to trust him and her fever from the previous night hadn't completely died down yet.

He needed to hide her somewhere dark and cool but somewhere that could hopefully muffle her without being too harsh...

Jude stopped and a dreadful thought entered his mind when he thought of a potential hiding place. His eyes widened and his throat became tight as he looked into Ami's blearily tired eyes and he hollered over his shoulder and towards the door "I'll be right there!"

He stopped in front of his desk and hastily reached down into it and plopped Ami down on the floor so she could be seated beneath the mahogany desk, which she had seemed to favour and he had hoped with all his might that she would hopefully become sleepy. Ami seemed quiet enough and she even yawned a bit as she was placed in the dark shelter where she was easily able to hide.

( _I hope she'll be alright under there_...) He thought guiltily.

He had sincerely hoped that little Ami would be alright and wouldn't hate him after this, he just hated putting her in the dark like this but he did make sure that she was mostly sound asleep and had even made sure it wasn't too dark or anything. He scratched feverishly and roughly at his scalp. He wasn't even a father for 10 minutes and he was already terrible at it...!

He went to go and open the door and when he done so he was met with the unamused face of the chancellor. She frowned longly and her brows creased a bit, her eyes like shards of ice through the lens of her round-framed glasses. She held a clipboard in her right hand and her composure was strictly professional.

Jude just couldn't keep a blush out of his cheeks as he smiled sheepishly at her.

This was certainly awkward...

"Um...err...hello, Chancellor Mercia, h-how are you?" He asked, trying to sound as composed as possible.

The woman, curious as to what kept the young man from coming to the door, peered into the room behind him and was astounded as to what greeted her on the inside of the room. Her jaw dropped to the ground and her eyes became bigger than bowling balls.

"For the love of Maxwell, Dr. Mathis! It looks as though a bomb was set off in your office!"

Jude bit his lower lip nervously as he led the woman through his wrecked office, minding the fallen pieces of furniture and broken glass that were strewn all over the floor due to that small tantrum earlier...not that he could tell her that, of course.

He mumbled whilst rubbing his eyes, momentarily letting out his exhaustion from the previous night "Excuse the mess, chancellor, I a _small matter_ to take care of,"

"And what kept you from coming to the door?" The woman asked, an edge creeping into her voice.

The man replied a little too uneasily "U-Um, I had to tidy up a little..."

He tried not to show his anxiety since his facial expression was betraying that he was becoming increasingly and needlessly nervous as he carefully led the woman by weaving through the wreckage and eventually, the two made it back to the desk where the young man hastily shoved some idle files aside and he faced her with the brightest expression he could muster as he clapped his hands together.

"So! What can I do for you?" He asked chirpily.

The Chancellor scrunched a suspicious brow at him. She knew that something was up, she had a feeling that something was out of place the second she reached the door. She didn't wish to poke into his private affairs and she eventually decided to leave it be despite the nagging voice in the back of her head, she had a feeling that it would not go away until this problem was solved but she had to be professional and sensitive to others.

A silence lingered until she decided to answer his question with a question of her own "How's the Spyrite research coming along?"

Jude smiled sincerely at her "It's going well! We should be able to correct it soon."

"Correct?" The woman repeated. It sounded as though there was a problem. "Correct what?"

"Well it seems that we're having problems with the technology, the devices are short circuiting for some reason and have been since last night. We can't explain it, but I won't give up!"

Jude was confused about the breaking devices but he quickly regained his determination and gripped tightly to it as he reassured the woman. He had worked hard for this and he wasn't about to give up because he had to do this before the schism came back in and ruined the peace Rieze Maxia and Elympious had worked hard for. He had to continue and try his hardest for Milla!

The chancellor nodded her head and grinned satisfied, this went as well as could be expected. She took out her pen and started to write down stuff on her clipboard as she scribbled feverishly as though some thought had possessed her to write so quick, she seemed to be as focused as King Gaius was whenever he tried to conquer crime.

It was soon time for her to leave as she turned and proceeded to walk out the door. She had to tread carefully around the room due to the debris on the floor and she headed out the room.

Before she left Chancellor Marcia glanced over her right shoulder and grinned "By the way, Dr. Mathis, I don't know what your hiding but somewhere beneath a desk is a horrible choice."

Jude's eyes almost popped out from their sockets and his heart froze. Just how did she know about that!? He was glad that she didn't discover that it was his own child he hid under there but he didn't want to give Ami away inadvertently so just decided that it would be best to suck it up and nod in agreement. It was what was best.

When the chancellor shut the door behind her, the poor young man was so tense that he melted out of his chair and slid on to the floor within instants while motionless and still. His heart was racing and his pulse was stirring, he was certain that he was sweating bullets and his eyes were wide and empty as they stared up at the ceiling.

That was far too close...

* * *

 **A/N: Ok, that's the end of this chapter.**

 **Look, Ami WILL meet the others and we will see what happens next but you all have to be patient because I'm having slight problems right now and I'm trying to make this story as good as I can. I'm sorry if Jude is a bit OOC right now but it won't be that way for long, I swear it.**

 **It seems that Jude has won a bit of Ami's trust although I doubt stuffing her beneath a desk would help. And now our hero has to try and explain his daughter's existence to Leia and the others...and his parents...only fun things can happen from there.**

 **I hope you liked Chancellor Marcia's (Aka Luna) cameo from TOX 2 in Elize's chapters (SPOILERS) and I hope you guys liked this new chapter.**

 **Please review and let me know if you liked this.**

 **-Chloemcg**


	5. Ambush

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

Jude Mathis sighed exhaustedly as he proceeded to write one last sentence on his Spyrix research report, his unique amber eyes flecked with gold as he sat beside a gentle candlelight that had been perched on his desk and nestled beside him.

He had worked and toiled relentlessly as he spent a majority of his time doing work and such, although his mind had been constantly drifting back into the past two days.

Jude had been told of the news that he was the father of a child that Milla apparently gave birth to. He had been initially shocked because of it and —if he were to be honest with himself— he still couldn't bring himself to believe it. He was the dad of a small child whom not only was the first being born of both Spirit and Reize Maxian, let alone human, but she was also already displaying the signs of having grand extraordinary powers.

But then, life had slipped back into a bit of a routine.

He would wake up, eat breakfast, feed Ami, do some work and research until the early hours of the night —with some playtime in between— and then put his daughter to bed before repeating it all the next day; of course his schedule would be altered a bit should he receive a visitor or something like that but this was a very rare occurrence so he didn't count on this happening so often.

Little did the doctor/Spyrite researcher/hero of Reize Maxia know, however, was that his life was about to change once again; for the stranger.

Jude gave a long yawn as he sleepily rubbed at his eyes with a sleeve and took a quick glance up towards the clock that hung on the wall and his eyes widened instantly when he realised how late he had stayed up.

The clock also decided to pick that moment to chime and remind him that it had only just struck midnight.

Wow, he didn't know how time passed by so quick!

Jude clambered to his feet and gave a big stretch until he felt his joints pop in a satisfying way. He gave a strained groan whilst he reached behind him to rub his aching back which he suspected to have become clenched due to him sitting in his chair for hours on end.

As he started to feel the stiffness in his back evaporate, Jude cracked open an eye to take a quick glance to the mirror on his right and he grimaced when he noticed that his ebony black hair had become more spiky and dishevelled; this served as a reminder that he hadn't brushed a comb in it for a while.

Jude finally let his posture sink into a less tense one and he rubbed his temple irritably to fight off the probable incoming migraine.

"Ughhh...I'm going to have to take better care of myself, I look like a mess." He grumbled as he started to get his things organised and go back to his little apartment which he had just moved into.

First he carefully put all the papers he had been writing aside into a neat stack on the right side of his desk, right next to a little bird cage where his messenger pigeon was hungrily eating from an arrangement of seeds and field peas. Then he blew out the candlelight, engulfing the room in almost total darkness within instants.

Thankfully he knew his way around in the dark so it was not a difficult task when he ambled over to the door and grabbed his coat off from the coat hanger before putting it on, tugging at the sleeves and at the collar of his coat so it would fit him better as he got ready to head home from another long day of Spyrix research.

He didn't forget to grab little Ami, though. The poor thing had fallen asleep while curled at his feet with a blanket wrapped around her.

The young man, with his arms full, opened the front door and walked out of it and started going out into the illuminant streets of Fennmont.

He knew he would never grow tired of how beautiful the streets and skies looked here. The sky was a beautiful green hue with stars twinkling in a peculiar pattern and the trees complimented that as they were alit with a spectacular brilliance.

The beautiful illuminance from the trees really high lighted the sky above and it made the young man smile a bit as he started to walk at a leisurely pace with his eyes wandering up.

Jude loved this town and even though it wouldn't replace his original home in the peaceful boondocks town of Leronde, this place would always hold a special place in his heart.

But he was quickly reminded that he loved his daughter far more.

Jude sighed contently to himself whilst he proceeded to walk across the bridge at a leisurely pace with his mind at peace, Ami was sleeping in her his arms as she subconsciously clasped to him with her little head resting against his shoulder. The child's snores were as soft and gentle as the sound of the ocean with its rolling waves and raising tides. The little child had quickly become the centre of the Spyrite researcher's world and she had him wrapped around her pinky from day two.

A small grin curled on his lips while he cuddled the infant to his chest, hugging her over his shoulder as he carried her with one arm, with his work papers in his other arm.

But then everything changed.

Jude didn't see it coming nor did he know what it was but _something_ whipped by the honours student and knocked him off his feet. Thankfully he kept a tight hold on Ami so he didn't dare drop her despite falling to the ground with a complete start.

"Ack!"

He exclaimed, quickly picking himself up off the floor and getting into a battle stance just to be safe.

His confused yet intelligent Amber eyes fell forwards and he noticed a small group of shadows suddenly encircling him.

The head researcher of Spyrite blinked quickly to see if he was actually seeing what he thought he was, momentarily wondering if this was just a very odd dream or something. But he got another surprise when he was confronted by a small pack of men whom stepped into the light and let their faces become somewhat revealed despite the group's darkened clothing and the intimidating air they brought on.

"What the...?!" Jude started to say, his confusion of what was transpiring rising.

Even though he caught a mere glimpse of these guys, he noticed that they didn't seem very friendly. His heart sunk into his stomach when the men revealed themselves in the light of the trees and the town, with its bright atmosphere and rich spirit clime, and he started to feel something tickle his soul.

Jude didn't even have time to blink before the amount of men instantly doubled and trapped both him and his daughter in this tight swarm. It didn't take long before he noticed that the men had cornered him and he felt rather defensive about how they were behaving with such hostility towards him.

As Jude sat down the road with the child in his arms, he jerked instinctively when a sudden blade flew right by his neck and pierced a building right in front of him. Upon realizing that there was danger, the young man quickly reacted to this and jumped high in the air before landing and landing feet-first hard back on the ground.

He got into a fighting stance and dropped his papers.

His eyes narrowed a bit when he suddenly noticed that his daughter shift in his arms whilst whimpering softly and squirming uncomfortably in his embrace. This wasn't too shocking as she was quite young and she was probably sensitive to this sort of situation, she was also probably able to pick up the moods of those surrounding her; she being half-spirit, it wasn't impossible to think this.

Despite it all, though, Jude decided to keep calm and approach this situation with maturity and a cool head.

"Good evening, gentlemen. W-What can I do for you?"

The poor man couldn't keep the fear from his tone when he asked the group this inquiry. His eyes were trained on the people and his jaw had been set while he tried not to reveal how frightened he was on the inside.

Guns were pointed at the child whom sniffled and hiccuped as she opened her eyes and looked up at the gang while she shivered either from the cold or from fright. Jude wasn't normally one to just become nervous as he was normally quite level-headed and rather bold but something inside him made him rather fearful and he could swear that he was breaking into a cold sweat.

He adjusted his stance slightly and looked at the group who seemed both shocked and angry at the same time as they kept their guns raised and poised. It was clear that Ami was afraid and she clung to her father for dear life, holding him as tight as she possibly could with her eyes huge with tears.

One of the men growled and pointed his gun at the child "We're just here to rid Reiza Maxia of this foul creature, we're simply doing the world a favour."

Jude was almost stunned into silence. They were going to kill a child, a poor defenceless child!? He didn't even look to the tiny girl he was defending and just decided to face these people head-on. He tried to continue to act civil but the dark expression on his face was anything but.

Jude's grip tightened on him whilst he carefully threaded his arms around the tiny girl to make her feel secure, she seemed to calm a little when he did this and her whimpers demonised just a bit when she snuggled into Jude's warmth.

"Why do you want to hurt her?"

One of the men scoffed and waved his gun around "We aren't telling you so step aside!"

Jude finally had enough as he stood his ground and adamantly refused to let them harm a hair on his little girl while he had any say in it. He scowled as he got into a more defensive position and got ready to fight it out, his fist clenched in preparation to try and defend the small one. He quickly spared a moment to put the whimpering toddler down on the ground, shielding her in between his legs and making sure she wouldn't move.

The young ebony-haired man hardly wasted a second in delivering several punches unto each and every man who had tried to attack him or Ami. Loud gunshots rang in his ears and spyrix-fuelled bullets flew by him and occasionally narrowly missed him, some even grazed his cheeks as he managed to mutter some incantations for spirit artes and make a bright green force field surround himself.

Each man was knocked down down one-by-one as he would either use his fists or cast some more artes to knock them out cold and he didn't even realise how much time had whirled by before he took notice that each and every foe was out for the count. The majority of them probably had broken noses and black eyes to look forward to. Breathless, the young researcher looked down at his own hands and noticed the callouses and scarring that had been left on them.

They ached with tension and his fingertips blazed with pain whence he recalled that he hadn't properly fought in a good long while.

The researcher took his eyes off of his hands and he quickly glanced down worriedly at Ami whom seemed pretty mortified about all that had transpired, not that Jude could blame her. Eyes were wide and she was shaking like a leaf, tears were overflowing in the girl's enlarged pools and streamed endlessly with tears of fear.

Jude's heart sunk into his stomach when he quickly turned and looked down at the child whom was behind him. Now that he got a good look at her he was starting to realise that she was motionless and highly resembled a rappig in the headlights whilst he examined her.

He knelt down in front of the tiny girl and laid his hand upon her head and retracted it when he felt how hot she was. Jude was shocked at how feverish she was and she had some very red cheeks.

Oh, poor girl...

She was probably having a relapse of health due to the stress of what had just happened. She had a terrible fever and she looked pretty lethargic and traumatised beyond measure, but what should he expect from a young child like her?

Jude's heart sunk whilst he took pity on his daughter and he even reached down to gently pick her up, although he was met with some resistance.

The toddler whimpered and started to wriggle in his arms in a feeble attempt to escape her father's grip on her. It startled Jude a bit but he managed to keep a cool head whilst he pulled the struggling girl towards his chest and try and keep her calm in her possibly delirious state of partial consciousness.

"It's all going to be alright, Ami..." He murmured with a tone of silk whilst he stroked traumatised Ami's hair that had small clumps of dirt in it. It made Jude feel worse about this, he hadn't known that people would have even known about her...and yet he was careless and let this happen to her.

It didn't take too long before the little girl fell limp in Jude's arms as he held her.

Knowing that he had to get this sick child treated right away, he started to run back the way he came although his mind was basically buzzing with questions about the events that had unfolded this evening and he had to wonder what awaited them both now that fate had dragged the young man into another adventure? Why were they ambushed? Why did they want Ami?

He had no way of knowing how to answer those questions yet...

* * *

 **A/N: Hi, guys. Sorry for the rather short chapter and I hope that you all like it.**

 **Oh no, it seems that someone wants Ami. What will Jude do now? Will he have to entrust his secret to his close friends to make things easier for him, who IS after little Ami? Will we find out why?**

 **Anyways it's going to be my birthday in a few days and I can't wait for it.**

 **Have a nice evening/day/night.**

 **Please review.**

 **-Chloemcg**


	6. Recovery and decisions

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

Weeks had gone by in the little city of Fenmont.

The town's illuminant green skies was still glistening and twinkling with this peaceful calmness that would normally be expected from it due to the abnormal Spirit clime. Everyone lived happily oblivious to the fact that something was very much afoot...especially when it came to the extremely odd weather conditions that had been brought on without any warning whatsoever.

Little were they to know, however, was that the source of the bizarre weather conditions was a remarkable little girl.

In the office of Jude Mathis, everything was finally calming down a bit after the attempt on Ami's life was made several weeks earlier. But things were still kind of rough for Jude since he had to deal with much more obstacles from before and he was now very fearful of going outside with his little one. Tiny Ami was such a little bundle of joy and was a sweet and kind-hearted child and Jude had grown to adore her with every bone in his body, although there had been another problem that he had to contend with.

Nightmares.

Poor Ami had started to get into the habit of crying constantly into the night so she would drive her poor father insane.

Unfortunately this was one of those nights...

Jude groaned tiredly as he tried to get up and tend to his baby, pushing himself up with shaky arm muscles as he tried in vain to use his strength to shove himself up into a sitting position so he could get out of the bed. His ebony hair was practically a birds nest as he had huge dark bags sagging under his normally calm amber eyes that were dull and practically lifeless from exhaustion.

The poor medic/scientist had barely gotten any sleep for the past few days and even though he had worked day and some nights to make ends meet, he found it very hard to cope some days and he would even pass out a lot of the time. Jude was, needless to say, exhausted due to having to get up so much.

Each time he did come to comfort his little one, Ami would seem to have nightmares of the night where she was almost killed by those people. Not only that but Jude also found it increasingly difficult to keep his daughter a secret due to these nighttime crying bouts and people coming over to tell him to shut the noise off.

It was tricky to deal with.

Poor Jude was so sleepy that he even made the mistake of drinking a whole bottle of hot sauce by accident, more than once; whilst it was a somewhat amusing scene to behold, Jude didn't want that to happen again.

He wished more than anything that Milla was there to help because it was a challenge looking after a child with spiritual powers. He knew he needed assistance and he knew exactly where he would be able to get it, but alas he still feared of the reactions he would be greeted with when the time came. Guilt gnawed at his heart as he knew that he eventually had to take action for his daughter, and get help from Rowan, Elise, Driselle, Elle and the others.

Jude moaned softly as he moved to get up and reluctantly peeled the nice warm blankets from his body and he winced when the cold touched his skin. He grumbled a bit with irritability when he rolled to lay on his side and then started to properly sit himself upright and he carefully slid out of the protective warmth of his sweet blankets although he was fighting every single other thought and instinct that was trying to either force him glued to the bed or fall right back to sleep on the spot. Jude mumbled sleepily and flopped on the bed.

It only took him a couple of seconds until he climbed right out of his bed and he was admittedly impressed that someone could fall asleep so fast; perhaps this was the result of him over-working so much that he was beyond exhausted.

It was rare when he impressed himself...

Nevertheless, the Spyrite professor forcefully dragged himself out from his bed and stood up.

He lumbered over to the child's bed, the loud cries grew louder and louder with each and every inch closer to the infant's small accommodation and he soon found himself standing at the foot of it. He had made his way towards a small bed that he had managed to make with great difficulty, he had managed to procure the parts from the nearby medical clinic (with permission) and he crafted it by hand.

Little Ami was tucked beneath the covers and she was practically screaming her lungs out while endless streams of tears meandered down her cheeks.

Jude bent over and picked up little Ami into his arms.

She almost instantly stopped howling and gripped on tight to her father's chest with her big eyes pleading with him to not be let go again. Murmured whimpers escaped her throat when she started to relax a bit in Jude's embrace, although her eyes were still very tearful. It was enough to snap Jude's heart in half when he saw such venerability on a tiny child's cute chubby face.

Jude begun to think that this girl was a reflection of how he himself used to behave as a child. She seemed so shy and fearful of the world around her and almost certainly clung to him whenever she was afraid of anything, she was also quite weary and cautious of everything and even more so after those guys attacked her awhile ago, quite understandably.

Yet it was then that Jude remembered that Ami's emotions tended to express themselves in very odd ways; whenever she'd get upset or throw a tantrum, random flying objects would come shooting out of nowhere. Whenever she'd become happy or excited, flower petals would shower her and everyone who was in close proximity. Whenever she'd become frightened then a cloud of rain would fall down on her, whether it would be indoors or not.

It wasn't even three seconds after scooping the baby up into his arms when Jude noticed that his head and back were beginning to get soaked. He glanced up to find a little random storm cloud that had little droplets of rain hammering down with such a vicious intent, it basically hit his head hard.

Jude tried to ignore the storm cloud hovering over him like some sort of phantom and he just started rocking Ami in his arms, he looked down at her tearstained face with eyes pooling with sympathy. He could tell by looking into her eyes that she had just awoken from one of her reoccurring bad dreams. The Spyrite doctor's voice started to become tender and as soft as velvet when he crooned at his daughter.

"Awww...did you have another nightmare again, sweetheart?"

Ami didn't answer him, of course, and just clung tighter to him with fear shimmering inside her beautiful eyes that matched his exotic Amber irises exactly. A big but smooth whine had purred straight from her vocal chords while she held on to Jude tighter she ever had done before.

Jude shook his head to rid his ebony hair of the wet dampness that had soaked his head all the way to his scalp. Raindrops flew everywhere when he had done this, but that rain cloud still hovered in the air above them and threatened to flood the office with its ceaseless amounts of rain.

"It's okay now," He said gently "you're completely safe with me~"

The baby, however, didn't seem to be willing to reason. While Jude felt a strong connection with himself and his darling little daughter, it seemed that Ami was still a teeny bit fearful and that extended to even him. Jude slowly rocked the crying little girl hurriedly but he grew even more panicked when the infant grew even fussier as she cried even louder.

The volume startled Jude so much that he almost dropped his and Milla's daughter.

"I know, I know, shhh...Just p-please stop crying!"

He tried again, readjusting the position of the tiny bundle in her arms. The poor child continued to squawk as she felt her poor father bounce on his feet in an uneasy rhythm. He stood on his toes and paced around the room with his tired eyes scanning his dark surroundings, trying to blink away the persistent moisture that came from the little rain cloud that idly hovered above him, the rain was trickling down his face in big icy cold rivulets.

He examined his office as though the answer to this problem would just magically appear; sadly, no such luck...

It took a few moments before the researcher hit upon an idea.

He had slowed his panicked pacing to a stop and he started to readjust Ami so he could lay her against the crook of his arm and he started to softly and calmly cradle his child whilst he suddenly hummed a small melody in a quiet dulcet tone.

Ami almost instantly quieted down when her bedraggled father started to sing and she sniffled and whimpered, big glossy eyes staring up at her father.

While the nagging fear of falling asleep on the spot persisted in the back of his mind, Jude (now soaked to the bone) decided to follow his instincts as she continued to gently murmur the song and ignore that sharp edge of exhaustion creeping into his vocal chords. It didn't take long for Ami to stop yowling altogether as she started to become tired.

Her eyes started to drop and she stretched her mouth wide open while she let out a yawn. She curled up in her father's arms, apparently ignoring how wet he was now due to the indoor rainstorm that had plagued him, and she put a hand into her mouth as to pacify herself.

Even the troublesome raincloud had started to fade into nothingness!

Jude smiled a bit, he didn't even care how wet he was anymore. He was just happy to see that his girl was getting some well-deserved rest. He couldn't even resist leaning down and lightly planting his lips on her small forehead while he was at it. Jude closed his own tired eyes and warmly nuzzled little Ami, his dark short-cut hair seemed to tickle her nose as she squirmed a bit before relaxing in the man's sweet hold once more.

The Spyrite professor simply leaned back and let himself collapse against the wall and he slid down it until he was seated on the floor with his papers strewn all over the place and the whole room looked as though it were ransacked. Fatigue had gripped his senses in some sort of headlock and he begun to succumb to exhaustion himself whilst he was sat up with his back to the wall.

Jude's eyes were heavy and his eyelids threatened to close over.

He wasn't even going to bother with drying himself off with a towel or anything since he was so sleep deprived. He could swear that the bags he would get from all this lack of sleep and overwork would probably hang very low beneath his bloodshot eyeballs.

Yet he muttered one more thing with utter determination before he gave in to the comforting darkness that surrounded him. His mind became heavy and blanker than a plain sheet of paper and the embracing darkness of slumber beckoned him like a sirens song as he began to drown in it. His cold and focused Amber eyes pierced through the pitch blackness like little neon lights.

He had to get assistance because dealing with the baby was becoming harder and harder, especially since it turned out that people were after her. Not only that but he knew that he could trust his friends to keep her a secret and this was at least until she was old enough to tolerate the possible judgement she would receive from the people of Reize Maxia and Elympious.

The last thing his ears could make out were his own words that he spoke with his soft-spoken voice laced with determination.

"I can't keep this up on my own... _tomorrow_...I have to do it."

* * *

 **A/N: Here's another fluffy chapter, guys.**

 **Ok this is where the others should find out about little baby Ami, who do you think would have the best reaction out of the whole group? How do you think Jude would be able to handle this with being a new father and having to leave his little girl?**

 **Well hilarity ensues in the next chapter!**

 **Please review and favourite/follow and stay tuned for more.**

 **-Chloemcg**


	7. Uneasy introductions

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

The faint glowing of daylight slowly started breaking through the illuminant veil of the everlasting sparkly greeny blue skies. The contrasting colouration of the sky was glowing bright whilst the faint yet bright beams broke through the distinct aurora to create a gentle difference and contrast to the unique Spirit clime of this city than to the perpetual nighttime atmosphere that the atmosphere normally would assume. The whole city of Fenmont was shockingly more silent and there wasn't a soul in sight in such early hours of the morning.

Time seemed to have slowed to a trickling crawl while the rest of the world started to awaken due to the ominous silence. It was as if the whole world was just beginning to awaken itself as the lights were beginning to glow brighter to signify the fact that nighttime was taking a backseat for daytime.

Even in the building in which Dr. Jude Mathis occupied, things were very subdued and quiet.

Whilst the office he lived in was still a total wreck, with papers and other items laying all over the floor, the main inhabitant of said office was even more so as he just slept whilst sitting in a rocking chair that slowly tipped back and fourth in a steady rocking motion.

Jude softly breathed in and out while swam in black void of sleep. His head was low and his mouth was hanging slightly agape, allowing a small river of drool to dribble down his chin. The scientist fought to open his eyes and awaken even though his whole world was swallowed up in complete blackness. He felt as his back reclined against the chair and his spinal cord was aching so much and he knew his head was hanging down low. His surroundings had become swallowed up in a dark abyss whilst he snoozed lightly.

His exhaustion carried him through the black abyss as though he were aimlessly adrift.

Jude quietly and abruptly snuffled when he managed to pry open his eyes a fraction. He tried to let his eyes properly examine his surroundings but his vision was so blurry from fatigue that it was hard to make out a single shape or blob that was faintly in his sight. He wasn't even able to keep his eyes open for another three seconds, he had no clue as to what was coming over him; he suddenly found that his consciousness was fading fast and his eyes snapped closed.

He supposed that the sunlight was making him feel sleepy, it was nice and peaceful.

Ami seemed to have been getting all the sleep she needed. She had been up for a majority of the night and Jude had eventually managed to settle her down, the infant had curled up in his arms and she popped her tiny thumb in her mouth and started to suck on it.

He smiled down at his daughter and wrapped her up tighter inside the blankets she had been swaddled in so she could be more protected from the slight chills of the breeze that flowed through the air.

Jude really wanted to nod off though he refused to just yet. His baby needed him right now and he wasn't about to go to sleep right while his little one needed him. But staying awake was a futile effort as he started to fall drift off within a short timespan of three seconds, his eyes had become almost impossible to keep open but he watched blearily as little Ami snuggled against his chest and her lips curled slightly up as they remained puckered around her thumb.

Jude couldn't help but grin at the sight.

This sweet little baby girl had captured his heart within mere days and it only took moments like this to remind himself how blessed he was. He was happy that he had a little piece of Milla with him that she was so kind to give him, he wouldn't have traded his baby for all the knowledge in Reize Maxia or even in Elympious.

He would have gone through a hundred sleepless nights to have peaceful moments like this.

His eyes finally closed and he nodded off.

Jude felt that he finally let himself relax, his whole world was quickly darkening and he felt embraced by this warmth that just wrapped itself around him. He let a grin tug at the corners of his lips when a wave of contentment and relief washed over him. He wanted to just stay asleep forever and he subconsciously leaned back in the chair to continue drifting in that peaceful darkness because he was in heaven now and he was going to enjoy this newfound peace and quiet.

Sadly, though, that peace and quiet ended within five more seconds when he felt someone lightly smack his upper arm.

The researcher moaned softly when the stubborn prodding started to interfere with his slumber and he softly shifted so he could further sink into his tranquil state, only for some more rough poking to be applied to his arm. He groaned as he tried to move away from the strange person poking and prodding him and then he heard someone whine softly in his ear as they reached up and softly slapped his face in an attempt to arouse him.

"Nnngh!..."

He knew that cute high pitched whine.

Jude started to stir and become conscious of the annoyed noise that echoed through the black void of his dreamless sleep and he moaned even louder in irritation as he finally peeled his eyelids open so he could get a good look at whomever had awoken him. He was so tired that he could feel the bags beneath his eyes which he could hardly open.

He stared drowsily down at little Ami whom grinned happily at him with amusement etched all over her face as she smirked timidly but mischievously. She had apparently woken up and uncurled herself so she could lean up against him and reach up to his face. From what he could see, the baby girl looked to have been quite well-rested as she stared at him with wide and curious eyes that gleamed in the morning light that shone through the window.

"Hmmm? Wha?" Jude mumbled in confusion, his mind clouded with fatigue.

Ami let out another annoyed coo as she stared at him impatiently. It was clear that she wanted something and the fact that she was so persistent in trying to wake him and the way she held her stomach told him exactly what it was she desired, it was just that his mind was hardly working at this point as he sluggishly and tiredly looked down at the child in his arms.

Jude almost fell back on the chair from shock and quickly watched Ami drop into his lap when she managed to break out of Jude's arms, and watched as her father tried to hide the furious blush that was heating up his face. The scientist couldn't help but let out an exhausted moan while he looked the young child in the eye whilst he tried not to let his irritation show; he was normally a relaxed and all around patient soul but it took a lot for him to get cross, he didn't want to let his annoyance out on a young child.

While he felt exhausted to the brink of insanity, he knew that he had to keep his head about him.

He bounced Ami on his knee whilst he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair in hopes to get more sleep for awhile without Ami interrupting.

"Ok Ami...daddy'll get you some breakfast in a bit," He mumbled.

* * *

 _Later that same day..._

"aaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Jude hollered in terror, one hand gripping tight to the beast he was mounted upon while the other hand desperately pressed Ami against his chest. He was trying hard to stay on and not let the beast throw him and his child off of it, the Wyvern was trying each and every conceivable way to get him off and was now resorting to diving and whipping itself about in random directions.

It was a wonder Jude had even managed to fly it towards the proper destination!

He grabbed tight to the reins and gave them a sharp yank to try and reel the creature in and stop it from acting so rough. It was bucking and kicking and flapping like a hot-blooded wild stallion that was strutting about in the meadows and bucking all who dare come near; he knew he had to regain at least some control of it or else endure a rough landing when they arrived.

The researcher of Spyrites was quick to pull the reins again, trying to fight off the wind blasting into his eardrums so he could even hear himself think. He couldn't help but let out a breath of relief when he saw the peaceful city of below Sharilton down below, his exotic amber eyes lit up with enthusiasm whenever he saw it against the puffs of cloud that had surrounded him in a mist.

The skyline was pretty cloudy and the sunlight beamed harshly against his back, letting a special and soothing warmth wash over him. He couldn't help but bask in that beautiful array of sunlight.

Alas then he remembered something that filled his heart and stomach with instant dread:

He still had to land.

Jude was worried but he quickly shoved the concern out of his head and put on a determined expression while he exclaimed "Hang on Ami!" as loud as he could. He didn't know if the girl could hear him over the sounds of wildly rushing winds that howled, but he knew that he had to just concentrate on landing. He could hardly believe that an old friend of his, Yurgen, had loaned him this frisky younger Wyvern and neglected to inform him that it was especially rowdy especially for one so young.

He had to make the supposition that Yurgen had simply forgotten since he wouldn't put a child in danger.

But he had to get off this.

Jude pulled the reins as hard as he could with one hand and it instantly jerked the Wyvern into making a downward dive. While he did hope that the Wyvern would instinctively make its own landing soft to evade injury, he was unfortunately sorely mistaken when the beast begun to lose control of itself and quite literally spin in a mad spiral nosedive.

 _'No, no, no, no, no, no! Not now!'_ His mind cried out.

He continued to try and pull the reins upwards to avoid the possibility of a horrific crash landing, gritting his teeth while he yanked as hard as he possibly could while he continued to cradle Ami protectively with his other arm. His heart was pounding hard inside his chest, a rush of adrenaline pumped through his body and his throat felt as though several cotton balls had been stuffed inside it.

The Wyvern continued to spin out of control, screeching as it flapped its wings hard to try and parachute itself.

This is what he got for trying to get to Sharilton the fast way.

He knew that this had to be done as easy and quick as possible for everyone's sake because he didn't want everybody to unnecessarily have to come to him when it would arouse suspicion for the other researchers stationed in Fenmont and it would be inconvenient for everybody. He couldn't come by boat because that would take a day and Ami would probably get frightened and drown everyone with another emotional outburst.

The only choice he saw was to contact Yurgen from Kanbalar and rent a Wyvern.

But he was desperately regretting it now.

Jude knew that they were coming in too hot as the city begun to rush up to them. The concrete pavement was becoming clearer as each instant passed by, each and every second of terror pumped through his system like a lightning strike. His head was ringing and pounding with desperation while images banged through his mind, his life flashing before his very eyes whilst he desperately fought to get the Wyvern to pull up in the last second.

The intense moments passed and then...

SWOOOOOP!

The Wyvern pulled up just before it could make contact with the ground. The wings had managed to slice through the air as they retracted and tilted into a shovelled upwards position...yet it didn't save it soon enough and disabled the ability to pull up quick enough to be able to land without crashing to the ground. The winged beast skidded and shot forwards whilst it slid and frantically tried to cease darting forwards like some kind of airborne projectile. The creature cried out in pain when it finally made contact with the concrete and it laid on the ground silently and painfully.

The crazy ride had come to a stop.

Jude sat on the Wyvern with wide eyes filled with horror.

He almost died!

Ami fidgeted and squirmed to get away as the researcher carried her in his arms whilst the researcher cradled her against his chest, fastening her close to him, as he shakily started to move. His ebony black hair was very messed up and stuck out in odd places and angles, looking as though he had been through a cyclone. His complexion was as pale as snow and his jaw had been wrenched tightly, he couldn't stop shaking.

That was just horrifying.

Jude looked down at his daughter whom tried to get away from him with eyes as wide as his own. Ami shuddered as she took one horrified glance to the resting Wyvern, her tiny body was shaking all over and she looked almost as scared witless as her father. Even her short silky black/light blonde hair was out of place and messy from being tossed around so much.

Jude disembarked off of the back of a Wyvern. It took a minute or so for the winged beast to have been tied to a pole and, little was Jude aware, it shot dirty looks over to the two whom had initially rode on it.

Ami hid her face into her father's chest fearfully.

The two of them had just flown out to the city of Sharilton as her father had arranged a little play date for her, but she didn't seem happy about the arrangement though.

Jude had spent his time gradually getting to know properly know Ami and building up her body fat since she was quite scrawny-looking. Her skinny form had managed to inflate a bit and Ami had even become a bright and alert little girl as she had come to completely trust her apparent father to the point where she was dependant on him for almost everything.

Her personality was beginning to shine through, too!

She was still shy and rather cautious but she was starting to become more outgoing and mischievous of everything. She would get into objects and even mess around with anything she could get her chubby little hands on, even though there was hell to pay when she threw her tantrums. Unfortunately it appeared that her heritage came with a price where something strange happened depending on her emotions.

She would cause cyclones and earthquakes if she was frightened, she would create rainstorms if she was sad or upset, it would be quite sunny and cheery if she were in a good mood and if she were angry there would be objects flying out from nowhere that would try and harm the nearest person.

Jude was rather fearful of his daughter's emotional outbursts but he couldn't keep her locked away forever and he had managed (with great difficulty) to hide the small girl and keep her mere existence a secret to everyone he knew.

That was going to change.

Jude had been so occupied with taking care of Ami that he had fallen behind on his work and developmental research for Spyrites. He had to catch up if he was going to keep his promise to Milla whilst the Schisim was still dispelled and he couldn't bare the thought of neglecting his own daughter and make her feel like he did during his own childhood either.

So he came up with an alternative:

He had asked his friends if they could look after his new precious bundle. Of course he hadn't told them about her yet but he thought that they should actually meet her before they made their judgements and besides, he knew he couldn't do this on his own and the secret about her had to come out eventually.

He was confident that Elle and Elize would take to Ami nicely, although he wasn't entirely certain whether how the others would react. Rowen probably would like her and Driselle would more than likely want to dress her up in dresses and stuff, he had no clue how King Gaius would react to Ami as he was built up like a brick wall and he could be a bit intimidating and then there was Alvin and Leia. Leia would probably be in the same boat as Driselle and Alvin might be either uncomfortable to be around Ami or he might take to her but keep his distance.

Anyways Jude had no idea how this could go but he knew that this had to be done eventually...but he was worried about how Ami, herself, would take to all this. The tiny girl was still very timid at first impression —just like he used to be— and he guessed that she would just hide away somewhere and cling to him. This is what Ami normally did.

But he _prayed_ that his daughter wouldn't have an outburst.

The Spyrite researcher carried his daughter through the town, being careful to weave through several of the people whom just walked about and resumed with their lives. They were oblivious to the fact that one of the heroes who rescued them was carrying a very precious infant who could manipulate or alter their perfect lifestyles with a simple flick of the pinkie finger.

Thankfully, though, Jude had made it to the mansion without a problem.

He had called ahead and requested that all of the gang gather in Driselle's mansion where they would have to hear about the news. Jude still worried of how they would react to little Ami as he had a special bag slung over his shoulder, it was not only filled with his special research papers but it also was filled with stuff needed for his daughter's care.

"A-Almost there..." He muttered beneath his breath, trying to keep a hold on Ami whom continued to struggle in his arms; Ami's eyes swelled with tears as she seemed to begin to slowly realise that something frightening was about to happen.

The Spyrite researcher cradled the little girl in his arms, swaddling her in his lab coat a bit to try and calm her down. She fought much harder with each step that was taken closer to their destination. The Wyvern ride scared her but she knew that something even more scary was about to happen, her father's soothing words of how this enactment would go alright seemed empty to her and failed to calm her even a bit.

It felt like an eternity before Jude stood before the huge doors of the mansion.

He didn't know why but he felt so tiny in the face of those huge double doors, his spine trembled just a bit when he stood before it. But he couldn't back away now because he had to do this now! He didn't have a choice but to do this right now, there wasn't any other options.

So, raising his fist, he rapped against the huge doors and announced his arrival.

It didn't take too long before the door opened up and it seemed to have been Elle whom answered the knocks; a somewhat unexpected person to answer the young girl but welcomed all the same.

Elle Mel Marta was the youngest in the group before Ami had come into existence but the plucky little girl was as bright as a spark and had become a constant devourer of tomatoes, as she had promised her father, Ludger Kresnik, that she would follow in his footsteps to try and become almost as good a person as he was. It had only been a year but she was strong, just like the others.

Elle's eyes lit up like gems upon seeing Jude, a smirk widened on her lips.

"Hey, Jude! You comin' in?" She asked brightly, sounding quite cheery.

Jude nodded, ignoring the fact that he was feeling just about ready to drop dead on the ground from pure exhaustion. He managed a smile but he was failing to keep his eyes open due to the fact that his energy was depleted.

Elle seemed to have noticed this as she furrowed a brow "Woah...you look like a zombie!"

Jude couldn't hold back a slight glare as he grumbled, his tone dripping with sarcasm. His shoulders slumped down and his frown became sluggish and moody, he was looking as if he wanted to kill someone to try and relieve his exhaustion. "Thanks for telling me something I don't already know..."

The spunky little nine-year-old harrumphed moodily as she rolled her eyes at the scientist. "Sheesh! I was just kidding..."

Jude relaxed himself. He didn't mean to come off as rude or anything, especially to Elle, he was just exhausted beyond belief. He thought it a miracle that he was still on his own two feet, he managed to conceal Ami by swaddling her in his coat as he wanted to reveal her existence inside the mansion and not straight away so they wouldn't bombard him with questions. He held a hand to his head, shook it from side-to-side and sighed apologetically.

"...S-Sorry, Elle. I didn't mean to snap..."

Elle seemed shocked at the researcher's odd behaviour but brushed it off with a dismissive wave of her hand as she opened the door further to invite him into the building. "Nah, it's okay. Just come in,"

Jude found his legs moving involuntarily before he could feel himself walking, his grip on his teeny little girl tightened considerably as a sudden protective urge overrode his better senses. He forced his exhausted eyelids wide open so his poor eyeballs wouldn't feel compelled to sting due to the fact that he was practically forcing himself to stay awake. His heart began to race, sweat started to cover his face in a thick layer.

The scientist fought back against the sudden instinct that told him to run away and abandon this whole plan out of fear of how his friend's would react, he had to constantly remind himself that he was doing this for both Ami and himself.

But he was surprised (not really) when he was enveloped by a sudden pink and plum blur rushing up to him before he was sucked into a familiar darkness. He also felt some not-so-sharp fangs dig into his chin and the top of his head while he heard a happy-go-lucky voice through the blackened atmosphere.

"JUDE! We missed you!" The voice exclaimed.

Jude recognised this all too well as he was left disgruntled and he tried to pry the familiar thing away from his face. He still used one hand to do this while he yanked and pulled hard, much like he did with the reins of that Wyvern but less frantically. It didn't take him too long before he pulled the floating stuffed animal away from his face and he looked at him with mild annoyance written all over his face.

Teepo grinned happily as he circled around the unknowing new father gleefully.

Jude sighed tiredly as he observed the plushie.

"Did you have to do that, Teepo?"

Teepo nodded "Yep! It's been too long, Jude, didja forget your friends?"

Jude entered the mansion and felt a measure of relief when he saw everybody there: the people present were Elle, Rowan, Elize and Teepo, Alvin, Leia and even Driselle. Gaius was probably far too busy to attend what with his royal duties and all. Nevertheless the group were all seated on a singular sofa with a coffee table in front of them. Little teacups and several saucers that carried some piping hot bland-looking muffins were perched on the mahogany surface of the table.

This seemed more like a tea party then an actual gathering...

Jude swallowed back some bile building up in his throat and tried again to ignore the increasing panic that was gripping his mind and heart. He shook his head wildly and replied anxiously. "Of course not! I've just been...busy."

He watched as the plushie returned to his owner and he walked towards the group seated on one of the luxury sofas and they all looked up at him curiously as they seemed to have noticed his strange behaviour.

"U-Um, h-h-hey guys..." The researcher muttered.

Alvin cracked a wry smirk in that mischievous way he'd normally do "Hey, kid! What's up?"

Jude didn't respond right away. He was still rather shaken up from the Wyvern journey into the Market city to begin with, it wasn't a pleasant experience. His hands shook like maracas and his knees trembled like jelly. His face was covered in a thin cold sweat and he had no idea how he was going to break the news of the fact that he had been saddled with a daughter of himself and Milla Maxwell.

Jude bit his lip in anxiety whenever he heard Ami start to whimper and he decided to bounce her in a free arm to calm her down, he was doing it as discreetly as he could to try and conceal her until he decided to reveal her to everybody.

He had managed to wield great spirit Spyrites, he had fought monsters and enemies, he had journeyed alongside ancient deities and gotten to know them, he had seen things and been to places others could only dream of.

And the one thing that made him nervous was showing his friends his daughter.

Jude managed to wear a grin when he finally found his voice "I'm, er, g-good."

Rowan furrowed a suspicious brow at the younger man's direction, clearly sensitive to the fact that one of his friends was uncomfortable. As a former military tactician and current prime minister, coupled with the fact that he was exceedingly wise, he had managed to see the minor signals of when anyone was hiding something.

"Are you certain? You don't sound it." He said knowingly.

Elize mimicked Rowan and quirked her own brow and she plucked Teepo from the air and held him nice and tight as she seated him on her lap although the talking plushie also looked quite suspicious of him too.

"Yeah!" Teepo exclaimed "you're actin' all jumpy!"

The group all stared at the scientist. It seems that they were all very cautiously distrustful of him now while they sat there silently and each individual awaited either an answer from the man himself or were trying to discern the cause of the man's odd behaviour for themselves.

All this was sending horrendous tremors down Jude's spine.

The unease started to set in and it felt so heavy. The atmosphere was so intense that one could cut it with a knife, it was _that_ bad.

Jude let out a sigh as he tried to ready himself. This was the moment where he'd have to let little Ami out and show her to the group and he could tell that everyone was also beginning to sense his great unease of having to even be present here, no one could sense that more then Leia.

Leia looked at her childhood friend from the sofa she sat on and spoke up "What's with the depressingly suspenseful gloominess? Are you hiding something?"

Jude ignored that question since he knew that he had to get it over with. Multiple thoughts rushed through his mind and filled his head with disorganised chaos, so unlike what his normal state of mind would be in frantic situations. His head felt like it could burst and thoughts whizzed around in all directions like angered bees in a hive.

This was it.

No turning back now.

"G-Guys...I've got s-someone I'd like you...to m-meet." He stuttered out.

He took in a deep breath to calm himself and he reluctantly unwrapped Ami from his coat so he could reveal her to the group. The small child had been shivering the whole time while she looked around with eyes wider than dinner plates and her eyes were dilated due to the fright she probably felt of this whole outing. She flung her pudgy arms around and grabbed tight to her father's arm and buried her face into it.

Regardless her introduction was met with a very long silence.

Jude spoke again while he looked down at Ami "Um...this is Ami, she's my daughter."

Everyone other than himself and Ami and even Rollo had slack jaws and wide eyes as they seemed to have been in pure disbelief of what they were seeing. They didn't even appear to have remembered to breathe that they were stunned at seeing a very young child like this with the scientist stood before them. Rowan, Alvin, Teepo and Elize, Elle, Drizelle and Leia each didn't utter a word for several long moments since they were still trying to take it all in whilst they sat there and absorbed the words into their heads.

When they finally did speak, everybody simultaneously voiced their stunned disbelief.

 **"WHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"**

* * *

 **A/N: Well, this is it! This is the chapter where the rest of the group become acquainted with little Ami but it would seem that they were extremely stunned. Can Jude cope with a bunch of freak outs on top of everything? Btw, it would seem that Jude is finding night times mayhem and he has to now explain how Ami came to be...if it's even possible.**

 **I worked hard on this chapter, I hope you guys like it.**

 **-Chloemcg**


	8. Separation

**Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

 **Duty of the heart.**

* * *

"WHHHHHHAAAAAAT?!"

Jude cringed at the loud shrieks that was everybody's reaction to him revealing little Ami to them. The gang had initially seemed relaxed but were now seriously close to toppling over like some falling dominos and falling off the sofa and hitting the floor.

The scientist clutched a startled Ami close to him, cradling her tiny body against his chest, fixing them all with a glare that was almost enough to curdle a herd of Rappigs. He realised that they were caught off guard but that didn't exactly give them the right of scaring his daughter whether it be by accident or not.

Everyone quickly realised their mistake and decided to calm down before they do something they may end up regretting.

Rowan was the one who spoke up first as he grabbed at his chest to feel his racing heart, trying to calm himself from the shock of this new revelation, and he looked at Jude incredulously. "I'm sorry, forgive our rudeness, but h-how did you...?"

Jude shook his head. He couldn't blame everybody for being startled because he supposed that this was a ginormous bombshell. He looked down at little Ami for a moment while he responded to the older tactician's inquiry with his voice wobbling with uncertainty, his intellectual cool amber eyes glimmered while he tried to keep his voice low to pacify his daughter. "I don't know. I found her a week or so ago and she had a letter on her from Muzét explaining how I got Milla pregnant, it was quite peculiar."

Leia looked thoughtful. She was still getting over the shock yet she seemed to have been trying to make her voice work, although she was taking awhile despite normally being the social butterfly of the group. Her speech fumbled and floundered about for a minute until she finally found his voice; she looked down at his lap to avert eye contact from her friend.

"Well how'd you know she's really yours?" She asked "You sure nobody just abandoned her and left her and pretended to be Muzét?"

It was only after asking that when Leia realised how dumb that sounded. Why would ANYBODY want to pretend to be Muzét and abandon their child pretending to be her? Not only did that make not a lick of logical sense but it was also crazy that anyone would wish to impersonate a great spirit, especially if they wanted to saddle a baby with Jude; and it became quickly obvious that Leia wasn't the only one that thought that about her own question. The young man furrowed a brow at his childhood friend and readjusted Ami in his arms so she could be sitting up a bit more comfortably in his arms.

"Leia, why would anyone in their _right minds_ try to impersonate a great spirit just to leave me with a child?"

Leia was unable to answer that since she had just spotted little Ami and her heart melted into a puddle of goo when she saw the little child for the first time. A big smile spread across her face and she bent down to meet the little one on eye level and her eyes sparkled with complete adoration for the cute little bundle.

Ami, on the other hand, froze instantly when her big eyes laid upon the unfamiliar lady.

"D'awwww! Aren't you a sweet little cutie~" Leia crooned, attempting to tickle Ami's pudgy cheek. Ami's eyes were wide with fear of the strange lady and she even wriggled a bit to try and move herself away from her but she was also curious of her new surroundings at the very same time. Her big honey-coloured pools were beginning to fill with fascination and the fear began to die down, especially when she found herself liking the sensation of being tickled.

Jude was dumbfounded. Ami had seemed to warm up to Leia quite quickly! Maybe doing this won't be so hard on her, perhaps leaving her for a little bit would be easier than he had originally thought...

The little girl seemed both cautious and curious at the same time as she slowly glanced around wearily with her tiny hands gripping tight to her father's sleeve, creasing the material in her tiny pudgy digits. It was becoming clearer and clearer that the little one wanted to explore but she was just still very reluctant about all these brand new faces and seemed to feel pretty intimidated.

It seemed as though Elize had something to say but she was also getting over the shock that this child even existed at all. But she quickly shook it off as she stepped forwards and grinned in a friendly manner at the little one bundled in Jude's loving arms, her own innocent green eyes gleaming with good natured cheer.

"Hello. What's your name, little one?" She asked in a gentle tone, standing next to Leia whom was still fawning over the infant.

Jude felt more comfortable as the girls tried approaching his daughter and let a grin spread across his lips when self reassurance started to sink in. Ami was starting to become braver as she stared at the new faces whom were willing to not only get to know her but even try and earn that trust that took some time to build. His proud yet exhausted honey-coloured irises practically glowed with delight while answered the young 13-year-old spirit arte sorceress.

"Her names Ami."

Elize beamed at little Ami, quickly overcoming her initial shyness and falling for the tiny child and it was pretty quick when Teepo decided to join in and meet Jude's little daughter. The floating literate plushie flew right out of Elize's arms and bobbed in the air right in front of Ami's face

"Well, she's a cute lil' baby! She's almost as huggable as me~"

Teepo's abrupt appearance probably wasn't a fantastic idea. The plushie booster didn't nom little Ami's face but he accidentally done something that warranted a reaction unwanted by the baby to begin with.

It was right after Teepo basically popped up out of nowhere and spoke so loudly when Ami let out a startled squeal which was very quickly followed by a series of crying; the poor little child wailed in Jude's arms, and flailed her teeny arms and legs about violently to convey her distress. She cried so much and her face was reddening, her hands were flapping aimlessly around and she kicked her little legs in the air.

This prompted the alarmed Jude to try and shush his daughter while he bounced on his feet before something horrific happened. The exhaustion in his eyes started to show and he rocked Ami from side-to-side rather clumsily so the girl cried even harder, and it was this outburst that created further bedlam.

Within seconds of Ami's loud cries amplifying in volume, some small storm clouds started to gather overhead of the whole group. The dark grey puffs of cumulus almost instantly began to squeeze out some droplets of rain which had stunned everybody in the room, it began to soak everybody who had been unfortunate enough to stand beneath the instant cloud of emotional distress.

Jude continued in vain to try and calm his daughter but to no avail.

She was frightened by Teepo, that was obvious, but how could he remedy it!?

Leia and Elize and Teepo all stepped backwards and retreated from the source of the indoor rain that showered over them and the others matched their expressions of confusion and disbelief perfectly. They all seemed (unsurprisingly) stunned that not only was this a true reality but that it a little baby was making it rain inside.

It just wasn't normal!

Ami's terrified screeches caused the raindrops to thicken and feel like tiny daggers on impact. Jude couldn't help but feel each and every drop hit his body as though a knife was carefully nicking his skin in tiny piercings, it began to really sting whenever a drop of moisture touched his skin. He was also keeping a constant eye on potential flying projectile objects that he hoped wouldn't come his way.

The scientist was at a loss and he was exhausted. What could he do?

But thankfully his prayers were answered in the form of another one of his friends.

Rowan had come up towards the group, trying to ignore the rain, and took Ami out of poor Jude's arms and held her in his own embrace as he started to softly rock her from side-to-side like Jude had tried albeit calmer and softer, despite the fact that he had been rendered dampened to the bone due to the raincloud of terror hovering overhead. Unlike Jude, Rowan was much more calm and composed in his approach but he was wiser, due to his old age, and he even knew how to handle hard situations.

Besides it was clear that this little lady needed some reassurance here.

The former military tactician handled Ami gently and even bounced her up and down in his arms to soothe her. Ami's cries had dulled into sniffles and whimpers and within instants the rain had evaporated into nothingness and the cloud had vanished into thin air.

Everybody was dumbstruck.

How did Rowan just do that!?

The butler smiled softly down at little Ami and proceeded to hand her back to Jude, whom gladly accepted her back into his own arms. He was still utterly impressed that Rowan had calmed her down so fast and even cut off a tantrum from occurring. He looked at Rowan with impressed yet heavy eyes and his jaw had dropped to the ground with pure disbelief written all over his face.

"R-Rowan, that was incredible! How did you do that?" He asked.

Rowan simply shrugged "As I once told Alvin, I know how to treat a lady,"

After saying that, he stepped forwards and tickled Ami's cheek which got a slight giggle out of her. The scene was quite heartwarming to watch and made everybody smile even if they were all soaked after that little outburst a moment ago.

Elle was holding on to Rollo, who was meowing in displeasure and shivering from having dripping wet fur and she furled her arms around the chubby cat, she looked over at Elize and they both glared at Teepo.

"Teepo, scaring Ami wasn't nice! You should apologise to her!" Elize scolded.

Elle grumpily added "Yeah and everybody's all wet now!"

Teepo also was affected by the rain since he had began to get all puffy and dripping. His horns were heavy and dangling —whether it was from the wet or guilt nobody knew for certain— and his round stomach was even rounder than normal, certain areas of his stomach poked outwards to make it appear as though he had several hernias.

Nevertheless, Teepo approached Ami slower this time with his head held low. His big green eyes were glossy and his sharp teeth were somewhat dulled as he opened his mouth and closed it to try and get it to work after it became sticky. He looked apologetically at little Ami whom now seemed extremely nervous of the plush and Teepo spoke in a soft yet tried to sound as optimistic as always.

"Hey, friend...I...I'm sorry for scarin' ya."

Ami was still weary of Teepo and didn't move, clearly uncertain of what to think now. She was certainly still fearful of her new surroundings and it was then that Alvin finally spoke up and decided to point out the most obvious thing about Jude right now.

The Elympion businessman had managed to stand up from the seat he and the others had been sitting on until not too long ago and he asked Jude whilst he furrowed a curious slick brow at the scientist; the honours student had very dark circles around his eyes and he was looking awfully pale then he normally did, and he was quite naturally pale to begin with.

"Jude? Have you slept at all since you found the kid? You look as though you're gonna keel over and die from exhaustion,"

Jude frowned and slumped over with exhaustion as confirmation. It then became apparent to everybody that poor Jude hadn't been sleeping well at all lately and he really did look like he was seconds away from just passing out. The scientist tried to deny it with a brusque nod of the head but his words had decided to flow out on their own without his control.

"Yeah...I haven't...slept much...Ami keeps me up...at...night..."

Jude's eyes widened when he realised what he just said. He was now quite infuriated with himself because this was the one time he didn't want the truth to be known to spare everyone worrying over his wellbeing, it made him realise that he was probably too much of a "goody-two-shoes" good boy for his own good. He couldn't even lie if his life depended on it!

 _Oh no! I didn't mean for that to slip! I knew that I was too much of an honours student for my own good..._

He rubbed his temple irritably and carried on cradling his daughter with a free arm but Alvin placed a hand on his shoulder. He wrapped a strong arm around his neck and was frowning sympathetically, obviously Jude hadn't been sleeping well because surely the daughter of the great spirit Maxwell could be very hard to deal with as was just demonstrated. The former mercenary gave the younger man a comforting slap to his shoulder to try and make him feel a tad better.

"Ooh. That's rough, buddy..."

Jude simply acknowledged Alvin with an incoherent mumble beneath his breath, barely noticing that everyone now shot looks of pity at him. Now they seemed awfully worried about him, and it even seemed to set off something in Leia as she just come up and decided to just rip Ami out of Jude's arms and attempt to lighten the mood.

Jude barely had time to comprehend what was happening.

"That's it!" Leia said, determined. "Jude, you should go and get a long rest and we could all look after Ami."

Everyone's reaction was simultaneous as everyone stared at the young lady as though she were insane. Eyes were wider than dinner plates and pupils shrunk into disbelieving dots, mouthes hung had open and hearts had frozen in everybody's chests. Time had stopped for everyone except Leia as they tried to absorb what she had just declared. It didn't take very long until they finally did.

"WHHHHAAAT!?"

Alvin exclaimed, horrified by the idea of babysitting. "Have you gone bonkers!?"

Elize added, her tone much softer than Alvin's. "We just discovered that Jude has a child with Milla and that she has powers! Are we even ready for something like that?"

Leia whirled on the two with her eyes practically burning with unfaltering determination and even her auburn hair blazed with equal passion; one would think that the young news journalist was about to storm out and battle an entire army by herself or something.

"Guys. Jude needs to get some rest, he looks like a zombie he's so tired!"

Jude interjected "Leia! What're you saying?! No offence or anything but I don't think you can handle such a responsibility!"

Leia shot Jude a dark scowl and frowned. Her temper was rising and she even had to resist the urge to stomp her foot in order to avoid startling Ami again, and she watched as Jude faltered a bit under her threatening glare of doom. When they were young she'd easily be able to crush him during a dual and he didn't want to risk getting every limb of his twisted and smashed by her.

Her glare intensified as her shadow loomed over the new father "Jude. You _will_ get some take some time off and _sleep_ , need I remind you of that promise you made? You can't keep that promise looking half dead now!"

Jude found himself unable to argue.

Even though Leia was beginning to sound very much like her own mother, she had a good point. He had promised Milla that he'd perfect Spyrite technology so Spyrix was no longer necessary and spirits would no longer be in jeopardy and he was determined to keep that promise. He was going to change the world...but he also had a daughter which he was struggling with.

He shook his head in defeat and sighed.

"Okay...fine, you can look after her for awhile."

Leia was basically _bouncing_ with joy after hearing Jude say that. She spun around the room but her eyes were shimmering with this certain aura of satisfied triumph and readjusted Ami in her arms and held her out towards Driselle and the girls and went to talk about all the girly activities they could do with her.

Jude, all the while, was seriously beginning to wonder if he should reconsider. Once again his head hung and his posture fell so low that he was almost on the ground. What could he do? What if something happened while he was away or something? He was still new at being a parent and he didn't want anything happening to his little girl, especially after that Exodus thing not too long ago. He lifted his gaze when he felt a sudden pressure on his shoulder and he was surprised at who it was standing before him.

Rowan grinned as he lifted his hand from the young man's shoulder.

"Worry not. The little miss will be in good hands."

The Spyrite researcher sighed again "I know that...its just that..."

He trailed off as he fidgeted where he stood. His bright amber eyes were alit with anxiety while he looked off to the side absentmindedly, he was tired but he was still unsure whether everybody was up for it.

Rowan saw this and tried to put Jude's mind at peace. "I understand, I will be near and make certain that little Ami is safe and you have my solemn word."

Jude pondered on that. He knew that Rowan and the others could be trusted, and he admittedly felt ashamed for doubting them to begin with. He was just feeling a ton of pressure about his baby girl and she was no ordinary child so he feared that if he put a foot out of place around her then she'd flood all of Sharilton with her emotional outbursts. But his sleepiness was finally beginning to help sway him, and the fact that he was still cold from being wet made it even easier for him to let it go for awhile.

He sniffled and rubbed his nose with a soaking wet sleeve, shuddering from the chills of the air, and he looked at the group one last time; mostly everybody seemed to have been occupied with Ami, talking about future tea parties and dresses and other stuff, and even Elle seemed to have been fully invested along with Teepo and Rollo.

The researcher was caught off guard when Alvin snuck up behind him and wrapped his arm around his neck in a brotherly headlock. The former mercenary smiled (albeit nervously) and spoke to the shuddering young man in his normal carefree tone of voice, "You go and get some rest, kid, because I think you're gonna need a lot of it..."

Jude nodded, all the energy now being sapped from him to the point where his eyes were beginning to automatically close. He could no longer argue, he was in no state to. Besides, he felt as though he could topple straight to the ground at any moment and fall fast asleep right there and then. He had been rendered depleted. He picked up a bag from his side on the floor and passed it to Alvin and told him in as best a serious tone he could muster.

"Alright. Everything you need should be in that bag, I'll be resting at the nearby Inn for awhile..."

Alvin grinned with false confidence with the damp-with-rain bag in his arms. "Yeah, sure, okay!"

Jude headed back towards Leia and bent down to see the small child in his arms. He smiled and leaned forwards and kissed her forehead softly, making the small girl squirm a bit and gaze at him with pure confusion on her face. Ami frowned and raised a brow. Why did her daddy look so worried? She didn't understand. Little was she to know, however, was that her father prayed like crazy that she couldn't catch on to what was going on.

Jude's lips were pressed against Ami's small forehead and her wisps of silky blonde/ebony hair tickled his nose. His eyes closed as he put as much of his energy as he could into that kiss, and he also put as much adoration into it as he could as well. He felt like he just had to do this to try and get the message across that he loved her with every single bone in his body.

It was silly.

Weeks ago if you told him that he would be opening his heart so much to a small child then the scientist would have probably recommended you to seek psychological help...

Why was doing this was so morally difficult? It made his heart pound with guilt, it felt sickening to just do this no matter how hard it was. His throat was closing and his heart sunk into his stomach. He didn't want to scare his only child into thinking he was just going to abandon her, and just the thought of that sweet little face being dismayed was just heart-wrenching.

Jude then pulled away from his daughter and bid everyone goodbye...and he smiled down as best he could at the girl and spoke light-heartedly to her. "Be a good girl for daddy, Ami. I'll be back later..."

Then he began to walk away.

Away from Ami...

Away from his and _Milla's_ treasure...

With each step he took towards the front door, a very impulsive instinct to just rush back and grab her just increased; just doing this felt so sickening for him and it made him feel just terrible. It took every shred of his willpower not to turn around and his task of walking out the door became so much harder with every step he took.

He narrowed his tired eyes. This was for Ami's own good, his own parents had to leave him at some babysitters sometime...even if his relationship with them was quite estranged, making him panic momentarily. Wait...what if his daughter grew up feeling unloved by him!? What if he buried himself into his work and didn't have time for his baby? Muzét had mentioned in her letter that Milla entrusted the baby's wellbeing to him and what if he couldn't deliver that properly?

He shook his head.

No! He had to focus on this first, besides its not like he was leaving her there forever.

He'd be coming back for her!

The task became so much tougher when he heard his daughter start whimpering and whining. The sound was high-pitched and filled with fear, it was a harrowing sound that haunted his mind and it tugged hard at his heartstrings. Those innocent yet pleading cries reverberated off the walls of the mansion. His resolve started to break and his strides were cut off when he was about to whirl around and rush right back.

He glanced back at Ami and he clenched his fists at his sides and grit his teeth hard in order to try and resist that urge that was now screaming at him to go back. Ami was reaching out desperately for him, her pudgy arms flailing about as they were outstretched towards him. Tears were streaming down her pudgy cheeks as she cried and screamed for him to come back.

She seemed to panic more and more as the distance between father and daughter grew.

Leia seemed to notice Jude stop by the door and hesitate and she gave a dismissive wave of her hand to shoo him out the door. She raised her voice so she could be heard over Ami's high-pitched cries of fear. "You dummy! Ami will be _fine_. Just go!"

Jude let out a heavy breath and managed to smile weakly at his friends. He was sure that the baby was in good hands, but he still fretted about something happening should Ami get anymore upset...such as a natural disaster transpiring caused by her emotional outbursts. He finally managed to get out the door without another word and he shut the door behind him, the large doors made a loud thud as they closed and the sound was so loud that it echoed throughout the entire building and even momentarily drowned out Ami's screeching:

 **THUD**.

Now that the group were alone with little Ami, they needed to find a remedy to get her to stop crying before she made it rain indoors again...but nobody knew how they could do that.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, this turned out to be a fine predicament for our heroes.**

 **Now Alvin, Elize, Teepo, Elle, Driselle, Leia and Rowan have been stuck with babysitting the tiny terror. Can they do anything to defuse the situation now that Jude had been pursuaded to take some time off? What will happen now? And it seems that little Ami suffers from separation anxiety...like our nervous wreck parent Jude.**

 **I hope that you guys like this chapter, please review.**

 **-Chloemcg**


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